News Ebel is continuing and intensifying its commitment to the world of football. Following in Arsenal’s footsteps, Bayern Munich is the latest team to have signed a strategic alliance with the Architects of Time.
On 10 February, Thomas van der Kallen, the Chairman of Ebel, and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the Chairman of Bayern Munich, held a press conference in the Bavarian capital to announce the partnership between the watch manufacturer based in La Chaux-de-Fonds and Germany’s most prestigious football club. In its capacity as Bayern’s official partner, Ebel will take on responsibility over the next five years – the agreement enters into force on 1st July – for all aspects related to timekeeping during matches played by the Munich team at its stadium, the Allianz-Arena.
Expressing his delight at this new partnership, Thomas van der Kallen emphasised that following an initial alliance with the London club Arsenal last year, Bayern Munich marked an important step for Ebel in its approach to the world of football and that it now envisaged possible agreements with other leading European teams.
To symbolise this association, Ebel has developed a watch dedicated specially to football. Far from restricting themselves the watch’s visual appearance, the firm’s watchmakers devoted many hours to developing an exclusive movement ideally suited to this sport, making it possible not only to measure precisely the duration of each period of play – hence its name 245 (or 2x45 minutes) – but also indicating the duration of time added on. The time elapsed is displayed very clearly (see photo) thanks to the extra large 45 minute counter. This new calibre comes as an addition to the 1911 line. Produced in limited editions with the badges of Arsenal and Bayern Munich, it will be available this autumn.
Bayern Munich has won more trophies than any other club in the Bundesliga, with twenty Championship titles and thirteen German Cup victories to its name. It is also a two-times winner of the Intercontinental Cup, has been victorious in the Champions League four times and the UEFA Cup once, and has also won the European Cup Winner's Cup. Its name is synonymous with success, excellence and world-class performance well beyond the borders of Germany and Europe.
The Allianz Arena, designed by the renowned Basel architects Herzog & de Meuron and opened in April 2005, superbly embodies the new trend which sees contemporary football – like Ebel moreover – attaching great importance to architecture. This extremely innovative construction offers, in the words of its designers, "a futuristic interpretation of the basic concept of football". Its breathtaking exterior is illuminated on match days by a cascade of red light which ripples over the shell to give the stadium a quasi-magical aura. No other place could have been more appropriate therefore to announce the new alliance between the Bavarian club and the Architects of Time.
February 22, 2008
