Ebel 245 Watch Review
Wednesday - 15 February 2012
We are accustomed to the partnerships between luxury watchmakers and sport: auto and motorcycle racing, international tennis and golf, extreme sports taking watches to the heights of the tallest mountains, aboard ocean-racing yachts, as instruments of survival on the deepest deep sea dives. From time to time, a few watches orbit the earth. Then there is Ebel and football, two words that seemingly must be pronounced as one.
Swiss watchmaker Ebel, founded in 1911, is the football aficionado of planet earth. To start, get this: Built on the chassis of their 1911 Tekton automatic chronographs, Ebel created the “245”, in fact, engineered it to fit the game. 245 makes for a random name for a watch doesn’t it. Does it? The 245 stands for 2x45 – the duration of halves in a football match. The 45 minute counter is oversized at the 12 o’clock mark on the watch, even extra time can be measured. At 6 o’clock on the watch face, the hours are indicated in periods of 45 minutes. Even injury time is indicated. For the true fan, the oscillating weight is football shaped.
Like the true fan that they are, Ebel went to the ‘nth’ degree to express their passion for their game. Scoring big, they’ve partnered with some of the great football clubs, including Arsenal and Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, and Rangers of Scotland. In an all-out collaboration, the partnering with each team includes producing limited edition 245 watches with personalised club logos and emblems, official team timekeeping, and Ebel digital clocks installed in home stadiums for fan viewing at game time.
Ebel president, Thomas van der Kallen, said this after announcing a long term sponsorship with Rangers in Scotland: "We seek partnerships with clubs who share our values of heritage and quality and there is no better way to communicate with existing and potential clients in Scotland than through a mutual admiration of Rangers Football Club." Aficionados they are and tuned in all season like the rest of us.
