In 1891 a young, talented master watchmaker, Henri Frederic Sandoz, founded the Tavannes Watch Company in a small Swiss village, Tavannes, in the Jura mountains. He and his partners, who were rich fabric merchants, soon opened markets around the world, notably in Canada, Russia, United States and the Far East. It was during this time that watches were becoming popular. Industrialization and the expansion of the railroad system made a standardized time necessary. The United Kingdom, in 1884, set its time to Greenwich Mean Time, establishing the watch business as we know it today. Henri Frederic Sandoz was a real entrepreneur. His visits to American manufacturers inspired him, and he was the first to create machine tools exclusively for the Swiss watch industry. Tavannes became an important Swiss watch company because of Sandoz's engineering abilities. In half a century, Tavannes built five factories in Switzerland, and became the fourth largest watch manufacturer in the world. At that time they employed over 3,000 skilled watchmakers and produced over 4,000 watches a day. With over 300 patents obtained for mechanical and automatic timepieces, Tavannes was producing movements for most of the famous Swiss brands. Many of these innovations are still currently being used. Today Tavannes Watch Company is known for its quality, accuracy, and reliability in the world of fine Swiss timepieces.