In 1996, Chopard's first in-house calibre 1.96 (named for the year
link of its birth) started ticking. The following year, the 1.96 made its debut in an elegant three-hand watch with a date function named L.U.C 1860, a tribute to Louis-Ulysse Chopard, who founded his own watch manufactory in the Swiss village of Sonvillier. The sign on the building
link read L.U.C (for L.U.Chopard), and
link the year was, you guessed it, 1860.