L.Leroy Watches

 Charles Leroy, the watchmaker of the king himself, gave his workshop to Cachart, his worker, who in 1751 together with Charles created the company named the Leroy Company. Having been the maker of the king and the whole royal's court watches, the new enterprise gradually began to achieve great success in the area of timekeeping. Shortly, in 1759 the company invented a modern underwater chronograph and showed its features to the Academy of Sciences. It became the standard model for other watchmaking companies to produce their own chronographs. In spite of  their significant achievements in the field of watch business, none of their inventions has been recalled by next generations. The French brand Leroy won fame to itself in 1785 with the opening of its workshop then at the very famous address - Royal Palace, which was unchangeable over 100 years. This new workshop immediately attracted the aristocracy's attention and provided them with luxury watches. The most famous clients of the company were Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France and Navarre, who preferred a table clock of this brand, Axel von Fersen, a Swedish Count, and the minister of Sweden. These watches, a part of the history, are now exhibited in the Leroy company's  museum. Brilliant reputation of Leroy remained unshakeable even during the French revolution. Napoleon with his younger brother Jerome, the king of Westphalia, his sister Pauline the Princess and his mother Letizia including their entourage made a major contribution to regeneration and preservation of the Leroy watch company. More and more growing role of the shipping began to dictate its own requirements in the watch industry. Ships needed more precision on-board chronometers to fix longitude. In June, 1808, the company was given its first order from the French Navy and shortly became an official supplier of high precision chronometers right up to 1988, when mechanical watches quitted the stage of the world watch industry. In 1863, in London, the company opened the shop at the famous Bond Street and became the official watchmaker to Victoria the Queen. It was a peculiar privilege, in particular for a foreign firm. In 1899 Victoria Queen ordered the exclusive wristwatch from gold covered with enamel. During this important period of the Leroy's history, the company's clients were the Emperor of  Brazil, Napoleon III, Eugenia the Empress,  the Iranian Shah and the Queen of Spain. In 1899, when Paris became the “capital” of all Europe, Leroy opened its offices at Boulevard de la Madeleine and became the most recognizable watch brand. The company became soon the official watchmaker to the Russian imperial family and was given an order from Admiral Rimsky-Korsakov to equip the royal yacht with full timekeeping system including time and date of week and month. In 1990 at the world exhibition in Paris the company presented the model Leroy 01 that, during the period of three years of researching, became the most complicated watches at that time. It contained 25 complicated systems. The case were made from gold completely weighing 25 g. This luxury watch was made to the King's of Portugal order. At present it is being kept in the Museum of Time in Besancon, a French city. In 1910 Leroy installed on the Eiffel Tower built in honor of the 100th  anniversary of the French Revolution, the broadcasting system which transmitted the world time. This step fixed more the position of the Leroy brand. The 20th century is remarkable for the arrival of the first automatic wristwatches. In 1920 the watch brand launched its first prototype of the automatic wristwatches, which was patented and presented to the public only on February, 1922. The first company's followers were the Harwood and Rolex brands, and later 50 different watch brands began to offer original wristwatches with an automatic movement. Leroy did not take sports aside as well. Because of the arrival of motor racing, more precision time meters were in great demand. The company began to offer chronometers to 1/10 sec and then 1/100 sec. In 1959 Leroy presented the chronometer having been produced without steel. This new chronometer  was made from beryllium. 1960-1970's arctic expeditions were accompanied with these watches. First quartz watches appeared in Europe, and in 1970 Leroy became the first European factory for producing quartz watches. In 1944 mechanical watches gradually started to push quartz ones aside. The company presented OSMIOR, the line of the mechanical luxury wristwatches. The case with diameter of 41 mm was made from white or pink gold. In 2002 Leroy launched the GRANDE OSMIOR model with the mechanical movement cal. 1543. The case was made from platinum, the power reserve was of 44 hours. These watches had an indicator of phases of the moon and water-resistance was to 30  metres deep. The limited line included 100 models. As well, in honor of the company's 180th anniversary in the watch industry as a watchmaker to the Navy, the Marine line was presented. Its models were the refreshed variants of their famous chronographs which had made the Leroy watch brand celebrated. The case from gold included the mechanical movement cal. 4711. The power reserve was 47 hours and water-resistance was to 30 meters deep.
Nowadays as many years ago, the Leroy luxury watches beautify wrists of the most respectable women and men of the world. The watches of this historic luxury watch brand are available at the official company's representatives or at the most luxurious watch boutique of the city.