Ulysse Nardin
Ulysse Nardin was born in 1823 in Switzerland. He trained as a horologist under his father Léonard-Frédéric Nardin and decided to apprentice and work for Frédéric-William Dubois and Louis JeanRichard-dit-Bressel. By 1846 he decided to found his own company in Le Locle Switzerland and took a focus on marine chronometers. By 1862 he exhibited at the International Exhibition in London where he was awarded for complicated watches and pocket chronometers and just five years later was focusing on marine chronometers. His name and reputation for precision continued when his son Paul- David Nardin took over the company in 1876 after his father passed. Learning the skills from his father Paul helped with a gold medal in 1889 at the Paris Exhibition, and several patents in 1890. He also won first the the Chicago exhibition. This prize helped him secure the contract to supply chronometers to the US Navy in 1902 which continued for many years. The brand continued to grow and expand until the late 1970s with the invent of the quartz watch. By 1983 the company had sold to Rolf Schnyder who revived the brand by using watchmakers like Oechslin to produce complicated pieces. Rolf passed away in 2011 and Chai, his wife took over the company before she sold it to Kering Group in 2014.