Interview with Oliver and Eva Ebstein

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Interview with Oliver and Eva Ebstein - Chronoswiss
4 minutes read
Worldtempus interviewed the husband and wife duo that have brought Chronoswiss to the centre stage of the watch trade in their home town of Lucerne, the world’s third most important city in terms of watch sales.

WorldTempus: Can you explain the history behind your move into this magnificent new headquarters?

Oliver Ebstein: Chronoswiss was previously spread across four different locations, two in Lucerne, one in Biel and one in Germany. It was very clear that for the size of the company, logistics and quality control was becoming very difficult. So from the very beginning it was our strategy to have everything in the same place. Lucerne is where we live, it has a great history of watchmaking as well. We have already had three different locations here in Lucerne just in the past two years. Now finally we have arrived here and we can already see that it makes sense.

Eva Ebstein: The company was previously headquartered in Munich but with a name that says Chronoswiss, producing Swiss Made watches with one of the highest percentages of Swiss components it was a no-brainer to return to Switzerland with the brand.


Being in Lucerne is one thing, but having such an impressive location for an entire watch assembly workshop is something else. How hard was it to secure these premises?

OE: It was pure luck.

EE: We knew we wanted to be in Lucerne but we were also growing and starting to have capacity constraints, so we needed somewhere to have everything under the same roof. Stumbling across this building, we were lucky to find it sooner rather than later.

 

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This has obviously been a huge investment for both of you both financially and personally. What are your expectations for the brand going forward?

OE: We do plan to increase production but we want to do it in an organic way. We want to keep on the same track and make sure that we don’t lose the thread. Chronoswiss has a clear DNA and that is important. We have always been very well known for making good dials but these will always be small and limited series. On the other hand, it tells people where we come from.

We will focus more on the dials over the next couple years. We will keep our manufacture movements and work with other suppliers. We will also focus on the Timemaster series, which I think has been undervalued over the past few years.

Chronoswiss has always been very famous for the regulator, its skeletonised watches and the classic styles. We are now looking to bridge the gap that we encountered and aim to be a first-time watch buyer’s watch.


Are you looking to attract a younger customer with your new advertising campaign?

OE: A younger customer yes, but one who is buying his first real watch.

EE: Chronoswiss has always had a big following among watch aficionados because of some of its pioneering achievements, such as the first series-produced regulator. We do not want to lose this customer segment but we do want to broaden our horizons.

 

Chronoswiss is largely a masculine brand. Do you have any plans to produce a ladies’ collection?

OE: We did produce a ladies’ collection a couple of years ago. We had 150 references when we took over the brand. We now have about 70-80 and we concentrate on two lines – the Sirius and the Timemaster – and we are basically a men’s brand. But we do have a lot of ladies’ models set with diamonds.

EE: I would say around 20 per cent of our references are at least unisex if not completely tailored to ladies in terms of case diameter and diamond embellishment. But it has always been a men’s brand and we will keep this, while still appealing to ladies who prefer larger diameters and mechanical movements.

 

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There are several very successful brands that are run by husband and wife teams. How do you manage the company between yourselves?

EE: I think about 80 per cent of the time we work in different fields but we overlap in strategy and key decision making.

OE: The joint element is really the decision making. Every decision we take is a joint decision. The company is like a child: we take it home and we talk about it. We don’t just stop work at 5pm.


What are your personal tastes in timepieces. What do you look for in a watch?

OE: I think I speak for both of us when I say that we like timeless pieces. I would like to see more iconic pieces in the collection. I’m wearing the new Timemaster GMT and I think it has a different face than all the other sport watches. I’m wearing this one because we have a new bracelet and I need to test it. But I also wear the Regulator quite a lot.

EE: I’m wearing the quarter repeater and I think it also has a beautiful timeless design. Ladies tend to prefer watches from the Sirius collection, which is the more classical collection. We are both very big fans of the guilloche and enamelling, which we have now brought in-house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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