In Sonvilier, a village in the Swiss Jura, Louis-Ulysse Chopard founded a watch manufactory in 1860, specializing in high-precision pocket watches and chronometers. Thanks to their precision and reliability, the watches of Louis-Ulysse Chopard soon enjoyed a high reputation among watch enthusiasts and also in the distance, for example in Eastern Europe, the Baltic, Russia and Scandinavia, there were buyers. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, Chopard became the supplier of the Tsar's court of Nicholas II.