Ernest Borel

In 1876 they were awarded the "Premium Award" in Philadelphia, USA, and, in 1878, won the only "Precious Premium Award" given to the Swiss watch and clock industry in Paris, France that year. The company was run by the eponymous Borel family until 1975 when, owing to the 'Quartz crisis' affecting the entire Swiss watchmaking industry, it was sold on and became a member of the Synchron Group which consisted also of Cyma and Doxa.

In 1997, Ernest Borel was purchased by a group of investors from China. The investors appointed Raphaël Boillat as CEO, who in 2009 named

his daughter, Nathalie, as successor.

Ernest Borel S.A. is headquartered at their new factory premises at Le Noirmont, Switzerland. Previously, it was located at La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. In 2018, the Hong Kong-based conglomerate Citychamp Watch & Jewellery Group, through its wholly owned subsidiary VGB Limited, partly owned the company. Mr. Teguh Halim has become its board of directors since then.

The stock of Ernest Borel Holdings Limited (Asian operations, stock code:1856) is traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 11 July 2014.

Products

Ernest Borel currently produces traditionally styled automatic and quartz-movement wrist watches for men and women. The majority of their product line are dress watches and casual watches.

Market

The brand competes with brands such as Longines, Frédérique Constant, Titoni and Milus.

The prices of their watches range from the mid-hundreds up to the mid-thousands of USD.

Ernest Borel has been expanding and focusing their marketing on China, with the opening of a dedicated Ernest Borel shop in Beijing in late 2007. This also reflects the marketing strategy of their competitors.