Horological Meandering

rdenney
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Let's hope.

I read an article in the local newspaper in La Chaux-de-Fonds where Mr. Blum, who had regained his fortune buying and selling the Vilebrequin and Crankshaft swimwear brands, mentioned that he had made inquiries to LVMH to buy Ebel back. They told him it was not for sale, but at the time they were already negotiating with Movado by his reckoning. Later, when an interviewer asked him if he wanted to own a watch company again, he said that he could never love again the way he loved Ebel (but he is apparently invested in several companies that supply specialty parts to the industry). He had accepted investment money to save Ebel (local scuttlebutt in 1992 and 1993 was that it was doomed because of the credit crisis of the day), but he saved it for others, not himself. Then, the partnership he thought he had began to look more like a takeover, and he was pushed out. The more I read, the more sympathetic a figure he became. I would love to meet him someday.

That's what happens when finance thinking replaces watch-making, instead of enhancing it. Ebel was certainly not the only victim of that disease!

I can imagine that their turnover was too sparse to support their assembly workshops for the Caliber 137 family in La Chaux-de-Fonds, and that is what forced them to sell the movement to UN. But that is the end of an era that will be difficult to recapture.

I have no idea of the inner workings of the MGI management, but being publicly traded in the US market, they probably could not sustain years of red ink. The Swiss can (sometimes) take a longer view. But in 2013, MGI moved Ebel into the Silver Tower in Biel/Bienne, right next to the train station, where they consolidated their Swiss brands (Movado, Ebel, and Concord). I get the sense that Concord and Ebel are brand divisions within MGI, and have lost their former independent corporate structures. Gerry Grinberg died in 2009, and his son Efraim is now the chairman, and the company seems to be taking a more cost-conscious business model. But there is good news in all this: Ebels and Concords are both unique buying opportunities in that their street prices have collapsed, at least in the USA. And MGI as a whole is solidly profitable and in market sectors that will survive the reported cut in Swiss exports better than some, perhaps. Stability means continued serviceability. I recently took three watches to the MGI service center, and all three were back in my hands, fully serviced, in two weeks. They are running perfectly.

--Rick