1961 marked the 50th anniversary of the Ebel marque and Charles- Eugène premiered the President model to commemorate this milestone. Other pieces contested and won awards through the 1960s, but creative momentum still remained somewhat stagnant.The son of Charles- Eugène had been on course to do as his father had done and was expected to join the family company and assume some of the responsibilities of directing such an institution, but Pierre-Alain Blum had other ideas and, as a headstrong young man, had dropped out of his education and instead took up at technical college to study engineering before disappearing off to the US to find his calling. In fact, he did rather well for himself after some time, but still resisted his father’s attempts at having him return and joining the company.Somewhat ironically, it would be Pierre-Alain who would see in the changes upon which the fortunes of the Ebel marque would swing dramatically in a positive direction. Threatened with the sale of the company by his father, Pierre-Alain reluctantly returned to his homeland and despite his abject misery at having to do so under virtual duress, his influence on the procedures of the company began to work through to every department within it.A charismatic and intelligent leader with a similar eye for stylish design and vision as his grandmother Alice sixty years before, Pierre-Alain masterminded the introduction of new attractive designs for men and women for the new era for Ebel and it’s new brand identity as The Architects of Time.1977 saw the unveiling of the Ebel Sport Classic range of models, featuring the ‘wave’ bracelet which brought the brand critical acclaim and more importantly, substantial worldwide success. Under the watchful eye of Pierre-Alain, Ebel and it’s new models reclaimed the reputation once almost forgotten for being a world-class maker of desirable and affordable watches for the younger, sporty fashion-conscious clientele it now had it’s sights on.The new sporty image was bolstered by the association of the Ebel watch as title sponsor of many prestigious golf and tennis tournaments around the world. Success built on success, and by the time Ebel was marking it’s 75th year in 1986, it had moved it’s offices into the magnificent and architecturally important Villa Turqe in La Chaux-de-Fonds, originally designed by the iconic architect Le Corbusier in 1927 – a fitting home indeed for The Architects of Time.The following years would see production increase and the brand appeal widened as a succession of new additions to the Ebel range of models were unveiled. Collections to be introduced during this remarkable period of growth included the Beluga, Sport Wave, E-Type and 1911 models, all of which featured distinctive Ebel styling. This bloodline remains at the heart of the marque today, and the ranges of models are still a major element of the Ebel portfolio to this day.As the Ebel brand hit never-before seen heights and profits soared, so a new holding company was established. Ebel Finance began to invest in non-watch related pursuits such as property, the acquisition of ski equipment manufacturers Authier and Look ski bindings (which had been inaccurately overvalued – grossly) and even a foray into the movies.Unfortunately, these diversifications proved to be a drain on the resources which had financed them in the beginning and by 1992 Ebel admitted that it was looking for a buyer or investor. And so it was that sadly, the Architect of Growth, Pierre-Alain Blum, was forced to resign from his company in 1994, and Ebel was acquired by Anglo-Arabic InvestCorp even though the company was still selling it’s watches in volume.Once the visionary and family influence was removed, Ebel began to lose momentum, once again due to stagnation in the design department as well as the fact that InvestCorp represented just that – an investment corporation – something which became obvious a mere five years after the take-over when InvestCorp sold Ebel on at huge profit to the luxury group LVMH in 1999, without having contributed anything to the maintain the lustre of the Ebel brand while in it’s care.