In 1791, the watchmaker and goldsmith Jean-François Bautte signed his first wristwatches. He creates a manufacturing company in Geneva that brings together various aspects of the watchmaking of the time. In 1852, the watchmaker Constant Girard founded the house of Girard & Cie in La Chaux-de-Fonds. He married Marie Perregaux and in 1856 the Girard-Perregaux company was born. In 1906 Constant Girard-Gallet, who in the meantime took over the leadership of the plant from his father, merged the Maison Bautte with Girard-Perregaux & Cie. Since then the company has continued its activity, reaching a prestigious position in the 1980s in the field of luxury mechanical watches, under the leadership of the Macaluso family.