Ulysse Nardin SA is a Swiss luxury watchmaking company founded in 1846 in Le Locle, Switzerland by Ulysse Nardin an apprentice horologist under Frédéric-William Dubois and Louis JeanRichard-dit-Bressel. Despite growing up in the Jura mountains, Nardin was fascinated by the sea and focused on producing nautical timekeeping instruments. His company became one of the first to manufacture marine chronometers and high-precision sea-faring instruments. It would be later known for manufacturing highly accurate marine chronometers and complicated timepieces used by over fifty of the world's navies from the end of the 19th century until the 1950s. Ulysse Nardin had won numerous awards and honors for its marine chronometers from 1846 to 1975, including 4324 certificates, 2411 special prizes, and 18 gold medals at International Exhibitions. The brand also received the most number of patents in mechanical watchmaking. After a decline due to the quartz crisis in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the company was taken over and re-invigorated in 1983 by Rolf W. Schnyder, transforming it into a profitable business again. The company today focuses its expertise in innovating and dedicating its resources to creating mechanical timepieces, luxury watches, dual time watches, and marine chronometers using novel materials bringing forth fresh design sensibility that surpasses form and function. Since 2014, it has been a subsidiary of the French luxury group Kering.