Beluga

The Beluga debuted in 1985, at the height of Ebel's international expansion under Pierre-Alain Blum, as the brand's answer to the women's jewelry-watch segment. The name evokes the soft, sinuous shapes of the beluga, the white whale of the Arctic seas, an image of elegance and "majestic connotations" that the brand has always explicitly claimed to describe the character of the collection.

From its launch the Beluga stood out for a round case with a compact profile, a recessed, fluted crown set into the side of the case, and a particularly slim bangle bracelet, designed to accompany the female wrist with the lightness of a piece of jewelry rather than a technical watch. The bezel, often fully paved with diamonds, and the mother-of-pearl dial — sometimes with Roman numerals at 6 and 12 o'clock — complete an aesthetic that over the 1980s and 1990s made the Beluga one of the most recognizable models in the Ebel catalogue, alongside the Sport Classic.

Relaunched several times in the following decades, the latest generation of the Beluga reprises the original curves with an even slimmer bracelet and a more feminine silhouette, keeping the fully diamond-set bezel — typically with about forty set stones — as the line's identifying element, in versions in both steel and gold.