1839

• On 1 May 1839 the watch manufacture Patek, Czapek & Co. is founded in Geneva by two Polish immigrants, the businessman and noble Antoine Norbert count de Patek and the watchmaker Francois Czapek. This is the start of the prestigious luxury watch brand Patek Philippe.
• In the same year, Jacques Barthélemy Vacheron and Francois Constantin recruit the Geneva watch maker and mechanic Georges-Auguste Leschot as a technical director, who introduces the mass production of watch movements with the tools he invented and thereby greatly improves the precision and quality of the pocket watches.

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