Ebel Joins the CHANEL Orbit: Eight Swiss Holdings, Mapped

A great name of La Chaux-de-Fonds is set to begin a new chapter. F.P. Journe and CHANEL have agreed to acquire 95% of Ebel, with Pierre Jacques as chief executive and a Le Corbusier house among the assets. The agreement also completes a remarkable picture: CHANEL’s patient construction of a Swiss watchmaking network, from dial to movement.

Key Highlights

• Movado Group has signed a binding agreement to sell 95% of Ebel for USD 66.5 million and keeps a 5% stake.
• The buyer group is led by Montres Journe SA, with the participation of CHANEL and of Pierre Jacques, former chief executive of De Bethune.
• The assets include Ebel’s trademarks, intellectual property and inventory, and the Villa Turque designed by Le Corbusier.
• With Ebel, CHANEL now takes part in eight Swiss watchmaking companies, a network begun in 1993 with G&F Châtelain.

The Ebel Agreement

On Wednesday 7 October 2026, Movado Group announced that it had entered into a binding agreement to sell a 95% interest in Ebel for USD 66.5 million. The buyer is a strategic group led by Montres Journe SA, the Geneva-based company of François-Paul Journe, with CHANEL and Pierre Jacques at its side. Movado Group, owner of the brand since 2003, retains a 5% stake and will provide transition services to ensure continuity for clients and partners. Closing is expected in the coming months, subject to customary conditions.

Founded in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1911, Ebel built its name in the 1970s and 1980s on distinctive designs. The new owners speak of the product first. “Like Michelangelo and so many others after him: the product, the product, the product,” said François-Paul Journe. For Frédéric Grangié, President of Watches and Fine Jewelry at CHANEL, Ebel is “one of the great names of Swiss watchmaking”, and the investment reflects confidence in its long-term potential.

Villa Turque: A Le Corbusier House Joins the Story

The agreement covers more than a brand name. Alongside the trademarks, the intellectual property and the inventory, it includes the Villa Turque, the house designed by Le Corbusier in his native La Chaux-de-Fonds. Ebel acquired the villa in 1986 and made it the home of a brand that once described itself as “The Architects of Time”. Few watch houses can open their doors on a piece of modern architectural history; Ebel will carry this heritage into its next chapter.

The house has a name of its own: the Villa Schwob. In July 1916, Anatole Schwob, the watchmaking industrialist who owned Cyma, commissioned a young Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, not yet known as Le Corbusier, to build it a few streets from the centre of La Chaux-de-Fonds. Completed in September 1917, it was his first application of the Dom-ino principle: a reinforced-concrete frame that freed the plan and the façade, his first flat roof, and the “regulating lines” he would later theorise. Its ochre brick façades and near-blind street front sat so far from the local taste that the neighbours christened it the Maison Turque. It was Jeanneret’s last work in his native town before he left for Paris, as recorded by the Fondation Le Corbusier.

Ebel bought the villa in 1986, the year of its 75th anniversary, and undertook a full restoration in 1987 and 1988, with interiors entrusted to Andrée Putman; the house was listed as a historical monument in 1995 and renovated again in 2011. For almost four decades the maison has presented it as the House of EBEL, where the purity of the structure and its play with light echo the lines of its watches. Under its new owners, that dialogue between architecture and watchmaking continues.

Pierre Jacques at the Helm

Pierre Jacques, who led De Bethune as chief executive, will become Ebel’s chief executive officer once the transaction closes. “I am incredibly proud and excited to lead this new stage of Ebel alongside François-Paul Journe and Chanel,” he said. His appointment places one of the most respected figures of independent Swiss watchmaking at the head of a historic house, with two shareholders who know the value of time.

CHANEL’s Swiss Watchmaking Holdings, From Dial to Movement

CHANEL has made watches since 1987, and its approach to Swiss watchmaking has been one of patient, discreet construction. The infographic above maps the eight companies in which the House now takes part:

• G&F Châtelain (1993): the manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds, wholly owned, where CHANEL watches are produced.
• Romain Gauthier (2011): the independent watchmaker of the Vallée de Joux, stake undisclosed.
• F.P. Journe (2018): a 20% stake in Montres Journe SA, the Geneva house of François-Paul Journe. Read more on F.P. Journe at WATCHESPEDIA.
• Kenissi (2018): a 20% stake in the movement manufacturer founded by Tudor.
• MB&F (2024): a 25% stake in Maximilian Büsser’s creative laboratory, a partnership discussed in our interview with Charris Yadigaroglou of MB&F.
• Kross Manufacture (2026): a 30% stake in the industrial company behind Kross Studio.
• Ebel (agreed October 2026): participation in the group acquiring 95% of the brand.
• Bell & Ross: a long-standing shareholding, stake undisclosed.

Together, these holdings cover every stage of the craft: movements with Kenissi, production with G&F Châtelain and Kross Manufacture, and some of the most admired independent signatures with F.P. Journe, MB&F and Romain Gauthier. Ebel now brings a historic name to this circle.

What It Means for Collectors in the Middle East

For collectors in Dubai, Riyadh, Doha and across the region, the agreement is a name to watch. The new owners have not yet presented their plans for the collections, the positioning or the distribution of Ebel. With François-Paul Journe’s attention to the product and CHANEL’s long view, the coming announcements deserve close attention, and WATCHESPEDIA will follow each step of this new chapter.

The full announcement is available from Movado Group on Business Wire.