The Swiss have been crafting fine luxury timepieces for over 450 years, since religious reformer Jean Calvin forbade the wearing of jewelry in Geneva. By 1600, Geneva's watchmakers were already considered the best in the world.
As the number of watchmakers grew, the surfeit forced the industry to spread out in the Jura mountain range northeast of Geneva. There a goldsmith named Daniel Jeanrichard introduced a division of labor, where craftsmen specialized in individual aspects of watchmaking, such as mechanisms, dials or cases. At the close of the 18th century Geneva was exporting more than 60,000 watches annually.
Many horological innovations came from the region. The self-winding watch developed from the "perpetual watch" devised by Abraham-Louis Perrelet in 1770. In 1842, Patek-Philippe cofounder Adrien Philippe invented the pendant-winding mechanism. The traditions of innovation and craftsmanship continue to this day.