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SOLID FOUNDATIONS at the base of the watchmaking pyramid

中文
June 2013


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 Unknown in Switzerland but big in China

If you are looking for Swiss Made Ernest Borel timepieces in Switzerland you will be disappointed, although that may soon change. Because the brand is so popular in Asia, and China in particular, it is following the Chinese tourists to Europe, setting up a retail presence in the specific cities that they visit to buy their Swiss watches. With 8,372 officially certified chronometers in 2011, the most recent year for which the official COSC statistics are available, Ernest Borel ranked ninth among the world’s top chronometer producers. This may say more about the chronometer certification than it does about Ernest Borel, but it is clearly a strategy that works for the brand’s target markets, where 80 per cent of the watches it sells are couples’ watches.

JULES BOREL COUPLES' WATCHES by Ernest Borel
JULES BOREL COUPLES’ WATCHES by Ernest Borel
Ernest Borel An example of the couples’ watches that work so well for the brand in Asia, the two new matching models in the Jules Borel collection have a two-tone case in stainless steel and 18-carat red gold and are fitted with the Soprod A10 calibre with COSC certification for the gents’ model and the ETA 2671 for the ladies’ model.

Emile Chouriet followed Ernest Borel in upgrading its Basel presence to a two-storey stand in the relative calm of Hall 2.2, after being cramped behind a glorified shop window in the now-defunct Hall 5 last year. The changes were striking as Managing Director Jean Depéry welcomed Europa Star to the brand’s new palatial presence.
In a calm, almost colonial, setting, the direct descendant of François Dagobert Depéry, who supplied watchmaker Emile Chouriet with components in the late 1600s, proudly showed off the two high-end pieces that illustrate the brand’s considerable progress since it was taken over by Fiyta in 2011: a tourbillon with a gold bridge and a minute repeater, issued in a strictly limited edition of three and featuring an original illustration of François Dagobert Depéry copied from an old plate, which was on display on the Emile Chouriet stand.

MINUTE REPEATER by Emile Chouriet
MINUTE REPEATER by Emile Chouriet
TOURBILLON by Emile Chouriet
TOURBILLON by Emile Chouriet

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