# Ellesse Watches



## Always"watching" (Sep 21, 2013)

Since starting to collect watches a few years ago, I have acquired two pre-owned Ellesse watches, one gents with box and papers, and the other a ladies' diver on it's own, with 200 metres water resistance. On examination prior to adding them to my collection they both seemed to be well-made, decent quality watches. I apologise here and now that I cannot at present photograph them, or take the backs off for further inspection, but my ability to do these things will hopefully be up and running soon.

Anyway, back to Ellesse, and my thanks here go to BondandBigM for mentioning these watches on a recent forum post and stimulating me to write a topic on them. I have therefore decided to look at this company and it's watches. Interestingly there is a fallacy sometimes found in the literature on Ellesse, which I shall explain in more detail. This fallacy is repeated on Watches2u where it is explained that "Ellesse is an Italian company with flair, passion and style, they have been manufacturing sports clothing and accessories for over 5 decades," the point being that Ellesse is not an Italian company and has not been so since 1994. Clearly, this misconception is a useful one to keep going given the cult status of Italian design. So, what IS the company's history and ownership.

Ellesse was founded in 1959 by Leonardo Servadio, in Perugio, Italy, and the name comes from Servadio's initials (Elle = L and esse = s) , and it's progress was founded on the invention of a new stretchy fabric for sportswear. Early on, the company formed a relationship with the sport of tennis, and then rose drastically in popularity during the 1970s with its ski wear, reaching a high point here with the creation of the so-called "Jet Pant" which was included in an event celebrating Italian design held at the Pompidou Centre in 1979.

Ellesse was gaining a reputation for combining sportswear functionality with street fashion, and this continued through the 1980s. In fact, Ellesse could be partly blamed for the ludicrous "label wars" that sprung up in the sportswear market, since they were one of the fist companies to place their emblem (taken from elements of a tennis ball and skis) on the outside of their clothing. The company was also quick off the mark to combine sportswear with fashion, hiring French designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac in the mid 1980s.

I don't want to dwell on the various high spots in the clothing departments, nor list the celebrity endorsements, but the sport of tennis has provided many famous celebrity endorsements, and other sports have provided such names as F1 driver Alain Prost and boxer Muhammed Ali.

Ellesse; One of my favourite sports labels - but what about the watches? (pic from watches2clocks.com):








The first 35 years of the firm were the Italian years for Ellesse. However, for some reason that is still a mystery to me, the company changed drastically when ultimately, between 1993 and 1995, Ellesse sold out to its UK distributor Pentland, a British brand management company who had been UK distributor for Ellesse since 1981. Pentland Group own a number of other brands such as Berghaus and Speedo. Apparently, Servadio still had a 10% stake in 1994 but by the next year, the company was wholly in the hands of Pentland, which now licenses the Ellesse brand to partners in other parts of the world, who then make and distribute Ellesse products in their territory. It is tempting to think that after the British purchase of Ellesse the products, especially such engineered items like watches, might have declined in design and quality as it seems always more advisable to have one company in charge of the design, production arrangements and quality control.

So now let us look into the watches branded Ellesse in a bit more detail. Interestingly, the Brittons website has a section on the history of Ellesse watches and it places the company alongside more hallowed watch companies. However, it then proceeds to give a potted history of Ellesse in which watches are never mentioned. In fact, I have come across another mention elsewhere that seems to think that Ellesse never made watches. Strange. If you want your Ellesse watch repaired, and I am beginning to be a bit disillusioned at this point about Ellesse watches, you can always go to: www.timerepairs.com and obtain their price guide for Ellesse watches, although you can't print the guide out for copyright reasons. Unfortunately, as my topic progressed, I began to realise that Ellesse watches do seem to need repairs rather more frequently than I would like.

Ellesse Sportivo 504 Series Men's watch (pic from comparestoreprices.co.uk):










Indeed, we start the more specific descriptions of experience with Ellesse watches with a thread from our own dear Watch Forum, dated 28 October and started by newnesy. This thread is insightful in giving us experience of Ellesse watch breakdowns and the knowledge that high-end models could cost as much as Â£500. Most interesting on the thread is the post by kevkojak (who I am pleased to say is still an active forum member) who explains that Ellesse watches are "Not 'made by Tag' but used the same Swiss movements as some of the old 2000's and 4000 series I believe (probably others too...) Ellesse used to be nice watches, but they have down-branded quite severely and are now just low end sport/fashion watches."

Watches2u, an official retailer of Ellesse watches gives us a bit of handy info on current Ellesse watches. Interestingly, none of the Ellesse watches in their range is over Â£100, and Ellesse bridges the gap between sports and drfess watches so they can stay on your wrist 24/7. Apparently, "All Ellesse watches have stainless steel cases and casebacks; hopusing a reliable qauartz movement and attached to either a stainless steel bracelet or rubber strap. Hardened mineral glass lenses provide a minimum of 50m (5ATM) water resistyance, two models have an impressive 200 (20ATM) rating. In fact the diving watches also have tachymeters and chronographs making them very versatile indeed." Watches2u also comments on the ladies' Ellesse range, which incorporate crystals almost universally - some of thjese watches having 3 subdial functions.

In looking for reviews, I first came across a rave review of a 2009 Ellesse Performance P-800CH, on mydesignerwatches.co.uk. However, in my eyes this watch is a badly flawed design and not , as the reviewer claims, "Italian heritage and modern style" being "the inspiration for the designer who created this fabulous timepiece". The watch and bracelet are stainless steel, and the dial is black. At first one looks at this watch as a "dress" watch, but as such, the design is rather ruined by the awful dial, where diver complications are jammed in. The watch has a water resistance of 200m, and a 3 subdial chronograph as well as a date window. As far as main figures are concerned, only the 12, 5 and 7 will fit onto the face, with unclear minute markers, and the hands are horribly short and stubby.

More pleasing but still not anything to write home about is a "Swiss-made" square-faced Ellesse watch illustrated by cornish on TZ-UK on 6 September 2012. At least this example was reliable for quite a decent period.

As far as ascertaining how good Ellesse watches are, the best source is probably an "Are Ellesse watches good quality?" thread begun on Watchuseek by Janne on 4 March 2009. I should say that I am not sure when Ellesse actually started producing watches the but my feeling is that it was probably one of the earlier contenders in the sportswear-related field - perhaps in the mid 1990s. Anyway, I expected this thread on Watchuseek to be quite curtailed but in fact it ran for longer than I anticipated.

The first interesting bit of info comes from jason-recliner, who describes a good quality Ellesse quartz gents chronograph watch. Firstly, he states that the brand had design affinities with Tag, and secondly, it appears that this watch was very reliable. At that point in time, the watch was in the 600-700 Australian dollar range.

Then, after a bit of less interesting debate, we come to the final review of an Ellesse watch, and here my mind really began to change about the more recent post 2005 Ellesse watches, which I had come to expect would be well designed and of good quality. This final review was posted by Boxbot and is of an Ellesse model P-200 purchased on ebay for $80 (when it was at its lowest price). I have never been keen on the idea of buying what should be a decent new watch on an ebay site, especially one that apparently changes it's prices regularly for the same watch, so I think there may a bit of "caveat emptor" to this experience of Boxbot's. Anyway, he bought the watch, which was a heavy stainless steel chrono diver with two chronograph subdials one above the other, as well as a date window.

All was well with the watch when, before it required a new battery, a problem started with alignment of one of the chronograph dials. Boxbot also found that the bezel of the watch was very prone to scratching although it did move smoothly and with nice clicks. Finally however, another problem also occurred when the link nearest the watch fell out and the watch fell off. He hammered it back but two weeks later, the same problem occurred. Boxbot looked to the vendor for help and a replacement watch was provided. |However, in the replacement watch the same link was already missing, and the glass was chipped.

Ellesse 03-0280 analogue watch for men (pic from cf2.souqcdn.com)










This disappointing review and some of the material I have come across about Ellesse watches would seem to indicate that they started out as pretty good watches, but the started to decline in quality, perhaps in the mid 2000s, although time frames are hard to ascertain on these sort of brands. I have to say that apparently, the words "made in China" have been known to appear on Ellesse watches, which although unfair to condemn out of hand, is a sign that makes one a bit uncertain. Finally, I have to say, that from a standpoint of liking Ellesse watches old and new, I now would not risk buying a new Ellesse watch, especially one of the more expensive examples. I feel that disillusion has set in and there is a certain sadness about this as I too thought that Ellesse was still Italian and only put its name to well designed and decent quality watches.


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## bridgeman (Dec 9, 2008)

Interesting stuff,I suppose some other designer and sports label watches have similar histories.

On the other hand Montblanc at least are really trying to develop in house watchmaking if their info is to be believed.

However ,despite your explanation of the brand name my complaint and the reason I would never buy one is the name sounds like an advert for sanitary towels! I think there was a similar thread a few months ago which included such stunning names as ARSA ,TITONI,etc despite these being very reputable watches,I would suggest they suffer from brand name downgrading.


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## pauluspaolo (Feb 24, 2003)

Interesting write up - I must admit that I think Ellesse as a fashion brand, much like Animal, Police, Timberland etc. I have this one, the battery conked out in it some time ago & I've not bothered replacing it yet (I've removed the battery from the watch though). This probably shows what I think of it despite it not being a bad watch at all, it just doesn't float my boat much  It seems nicely made & the spec isn't bad with 200m water resistance, screw down crown & pvd coating. The contrasting silver lugs are hinged which makes it comfortable to wear & is quite an unusual detail, the bezel is fixed unfortunately (a pet hate of mine on watches is bezels which look as if they should rotate but don't). I've no idea if it's a current model or not but I didn't pay much for it. The dial looks white in the photo but it's silver really & contrasts well with the black main hands - a good job really as the lume on the main hands is poor, some of the indices (1, 5, 7, 9 & 11) are lumed as well but the amount of lume is so small it's a bit pointless having it there really.


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## it'salivejim (Jan 19, 2013)

I remember I had a lovely pair of white ellessee trainers back in the day when footy casual was de rigueur


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## tall_tim (Jul 29, 2009)

Here's mine, Which I don't think you could see when I posted it elsewhere, Always Watching.


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## Jeremy Fisher (Jan 28, 2012)

What else would you expect from a fashion brand? They specialise in making sports goods, not watches. They are trying to sell the brand's image rather than a quality watch. Its always important to remember that fashion brands don't make their watches, they have them made for them, and most brands will try to shop around for the lowest prices - meaning that the watches end up being made by the lowest bidder and are generally of lower quality, even if the specs of the watch are brilliant on paper.

I used to have an older, Swiss made Ellesse a few years ago (back when I first started collecting watches, and thought that the only thing that mattered was "Swiss Made") and it was thoroughly disappointing. The seller advertised it as NOS (although I think it was used) and it was in decent condition, no scratches or dings on it whatsoever. At first I quite liked it, but a year in the bezel seized up and the screwed down crown would no longer screw in.


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## GASHEAD (Aug 27, 2009)

I remember taking a fancy to an Ellesse watch in H. Samuel back in the day. Never took the plunge though. Not sure they've moved on a lot since then!


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## Wookie_66 (Sep 30, 2013)

I love my Ellese watch. Bought back in 1994/5 for around Â£300 in John Lewis. 200m and definatly mineral glass maybe even Saphire. I had it repaired around 1998 as I bent the crown pin. Other than this it has been faultless and keeps perfect time still. I wore it daily more or less more 10-15 years. It does however now have 1 small chip in the glass. Its a great watch.


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## Always"watching" (Sep 21, 2013)

I have to admit that I fear Jeremy Fisher may be more correct in his assessment of Ellesse than I would have liked, although I am not prepared to condemn all designer brands where the watch is not actually manufactured by the company whose brand is on the watch. I do feel that we have to with the times, and I do believe that this involves taking into account watches branded by companies who don't actually make them as long as that company keeps a good hold on design, production and quality control. In the case of Ellesse I do feel that the brand has gone down hill and I would say that this is in terms of design as well as in terms of quality. I do find the current range of Ellesse watches pretty disappointing. As for their other sports goods, I can't really comment, although I believe that it'salivejim had good taste when he chose a pair of Ellesse sports shoes.

I must just comment on bridgemann's post :lol: although I did find a certain pathos in it - I, for example would never wear a watch branded "NIXON". Kristina's mother was Swedish, and it is surprising how many harmless words there are in Swedish which have a rather tasteless or rude meaning over here, and I have come across other dual meaning words from different languages that could cause embarrasment.

Thanks everyone for your posts and pics.


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## boiler0780 (Sep 12, 2014)

Wookie_66 said:


> I love my Ellese watch. Bought back in 1994/5 for around Â£300 in John Lewis. 200m and definatly mineral glass maybe even Saphire. I had it repaired around 1998 as I bent the crown pin. Other than this it has been faultless and keeps perfect time still. I wore it daily more or less more 10-15 years. It does however now have 1 small chip in the glass. Its a great watch.


I have the very same watch i got it new in 1997 cost Â£245.00 , i also have a square faced one i will get some pictures up later .

I need mine repairing does anyone know how can do the work for me please

ATB

John


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## Jeremy Fisher (Jan 28, 2012)

boiler0780 said:


> I have the very same watch i got it new in 1997 cost Â£245.00 , i also have a square faced one i will get some pictures up later .
> 
> I need mine repairing does anyone know how can do the work for me please
> 
> ...


They use standard ETA quartz, so any watch repairer will be able to fix it (if it's a movement issue).


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## Wookie_66 (Sep 30, 2013)

As above.


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## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

it said:


> I remember I had a lovely pair of white ellessee trainers back in the day when footy casual was de rigueur


You can still buy them

"In the 80s the Ellesse brand became well out of touch for many of the dressers and football casuals with premium tennis and ski wear only worn by a key elite crowd. The "whos who" of tennis steps out to play in the brand and a whole host of celebrities. Boris Becker and Guillermo Vilas become the Ellesse poster boys as well as the likes of Pat Cash, Uks own pretty boy John Lloyd and wife Chris Evert. Throughout the key 80s casual era Ellesse captured the 80s zeitgeist with iconic ads, posters and calendars. 80s Casual Classics took on sole responsibility for the brands launch and has continued to be involved in Exclusives re-launch styles. 80s Casual Classics and collector friends supplied vintage Ellesse Track Tops, Polo Shirts, Track Bottoms and Ellesse ski jackets and Ellesse bucket hats to Nick Loves The Firm. Since this time we have re-introduced classic Ellesse Shorts and 90s stye logo T-shirts and Hooded Tops. We continue to uncover new and old releases with one of the most colourful and exciting brands expect exclusive Ellesse tracks, Ellesse Polos and Ellesse shorts exciting times."

http://www.80scasualclassics.co.uk/p0/ellesse/388648.htm

AW, as I said previously it was a top brand back in the day backed by a lot of big names although I can't comment on how good the reissues are back then it was decent kit including the watches.


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## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

Actually Mr Bridgeman I recall being stuck in a beer garden with you and about a 100+ D&R casuals in their best Ellesse/Fila gear and maybe a few matching watches as well.

:lol: :lol:


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## martin dickinson (Jun 18, 2015)

very interesting comments on ellesse watches, yes they are a middle line sports company, but there watches have nothing to do with pentland who own ellesse and other well known fashion brands, they are a bit of a mystery but i do know there watch bracelets and watch cases are manufactured by STELUX who are a hong kong based company founded in the early 60s who specialize in making watch cases and bracelets not only for seiko but also other japanese brands but the surprise is they manufacture also for the swiss and also the small Swiss manufactures of high end plus £40k range, Stelux are a well known company in the use of steel and lens's they have returned to japan for its movements but its bracelets and cases are manufactured by one of the leading companies in the world in this area of manufacture, always find it interesting watch swiss bias snobbery when most of the making is not done in house but farmed out to other companies just like watch repair which is what i specialize in..


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## gw257 (Aug 9, 2016)

Hi!

I have come across a brand new Ellesse Sportivo 504 Series Men's watch in my garage and was looking to sell it on ebay. I thought you may be able to advise me on how much this watch is going for. Although the OP posted a picture of this model there is no reference to its cost.










Thanks for any help

* I forgot to mention that the battery needs replacing which I assume will lower the price of the watch.


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## RWP (Nov 8, 2015)

gw257 said:


> Hi!
> 
> I have come across a brand new Ellesse Sportivo 504 Series Men's watch in my garage and was looking to sell it on ebay. I thought you may be able to advise me on how much this watch is going for. Although the OP posted a picture of this model there is no reference to its cost.
> 
> ...


 Replace the battery before selling as working :thumbsup:


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