Chopard is a Geneva-based luxury watch, jewelry, and accessories company founded in 1860 by Louis-Ulysse Chopard at the age of 24. Chopard initially concentrated on developing precise pocket watches and chronometers based upon innovative ideas. Chopard is regarded as a manufacture, in other words that they make many of their watches and movements in-house rather than using the base movements (ebauches) of other manufacturers. Chopard, which also has production facilities in Fleurier, is one of four participating brands in the Fleurier Quality Foundation (together with Bovet, Parmigiani and Vaucher), which certifies a very high level of quality to manufactured watches (www.fleurier-quality.com). The "Qualité Fleurier" standard is meant to compete with the Geneva standards such as the exclusive Geneva Seal manufacturing standard.