Watchmaking obeys the same principles as Chinese philosophy or the laws of mechanics: when two antagonistic positions are juxtaposed, the result is equilibrium. Good and Evil, Yin and Yang, the oscillations of a balance wheel... stability and longevity are all a matter of balance.
Ernest Borel has successfully navigated the decades and centuries by taking this maxim to heart. This year, the watchmaker celebrates its 160th birthday. Since it was founded in Neuchâtel in 1856, its development has followed the kind of rational and orderly path that is conspicuously lacking elsewhere in the industry.
Romance VS Tinder
You don’t have to look far to find the reason: rather than investing extravagantly in marketing campaigns that hype up the concept of fun and instant gratification, those momentary pleasures that will carry you through to the end of a football match, just long enough to tweet about them, Ernest Borel has for the last 160 years wagered everything on romance. In an era of short-term relationships, Tinder and online dating, Ernest Borel gives pride of place to lifelong commitment. At a time when watches have become personal cult objects, narcissistic markers of social status, Ernest Borel still chooses to sell its timepieces in pairs, symbolising the promise of “happy ever after”.
Moderation in all things
The company’s commercial strategy follows similar lines. When the watchmaking hive sent out its queen bees to colonise Asia, twenty years ago, Ernest Borel had already been there for a century. It even performed the operation in reverse to consolidate its position in Europe!
Even the company’s media presence is measured and restrained. There’s no Instagram avalanche, no furious tweeting or live streaming on Facebook, and certainly no daredevils preparing to throw themselves off a tower or a cliff, or to launch themselves into the stratosphere. Ernest Borel is no show-off; the company doesn’t care to insinuate itself, uninvited, into the everyday life of the watch enthusiast. It’s a simple matter of good manners. Anyone who wishes to explore the Ernest Borel universe of their own accord is most welcome to do so.
From Noirmont to Hong Kong
And yet, Ernest Borel has plenty to shout about. While the gossip columns of the watch press document a never-ending game of musical chairs at the highest echelons of the industry, Ernest Borel has always been remarkably stable. A descendant of the original Ernest Borel was its commercial director for almost 40 years! In order to ensure its continued growth, the company opened a subsidiary in Hong Kong in 1989, while continuing to pay tribute to its Swiss heritage. It still has its headquarters in Noirmont, fifteen kilometres north of La Chaux-de-Fonds. Over the last decade the company has developed its domestic market, revived its activity in the United States – historically an important market for the company – and made inroads in India, the Middle East, Europe and Oceania.
Despite this continuing development and its cautious outlook, the company, like all Swiss brands, is nevertheless subject to the vagaries of world markets. This year, after a period of restructuring, Ernest Borel will probably downsize its workforce. Nevertheless, and with the discretion that has been its hallmark for the last 160 years, Ernest Borel has unveiled a limited series of 888 to celebrate its anniversary. These timeless and elegant watches, with calendar function, are available in pairs. A second extremely limited series of just 10 pieces are set with diamonds at 3 and 9 o’clock. The diamonds are, of course, in pairs.
