In the late 1980s, I was convinced that, to tackle the high-end mechanical-watch market we needed a genuine and integrated approach to in-house watchmaking. I analysed the opportunities, including existing manufactures that might be purchased or taken over, but concluded the only way forward was to build our own from scratch. The first step was to master an initial base calibre as opposed to a complication; we would work from the bottom up and then go on to build more complex timepieces. From this, our first in-house movement, the L.U.C 1.96, was born.
It was certainly easier said than done. The biggest challenge was having patience, which I underestimated because I was very enthusiastic. The further we developed, I realised this kind of thing takes time. Even 20 years ago, you could already work well with computer-aided design, so the planning stage was in some ways the easier part and very convincing, as you could see a watch materialise on your screen. But between this stage and actually making it a reality was a steep learning curve.
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