Decades of success as the world's primary supplier of fine timepieces had resulted in a self-assured complacency within Switzerland’s watchmaking industry. Then on the 10th of May, 1876, the great Philadelphia International Exhibition, created to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of America's Declaration of Independence, opened to the public. Among the many displays was the indisputable evidence of the manufacturing superiority of such American companies as Waltham and Elgin, each capable of finishing many hundred watches per day. Jacques David, Swiss watchmaker and machine designer, was dispatched to America by Ernest Francillon to witness the exhibitions first-hand, and report his findings back to the Intercanonal Society. Léon L. Gallet followed shortly behind, arriving in Philadelphia the next month. What both men witnessed at the exhibition further confirmed the concerns of Gallet and Francillon. On his return to Switzerland in November, Jacques David wrote a long detailed report on the men's findings to the Intercantonal Society of the Jura Industries. While David's report helped to wake the Swiss watchmaking industry from its comfortable complacency, increased revenues were needed for the Society's members to initiate the developments required to meet these new challenges. By the time that the Philadelphia Exposition opened to the public in 1876, Léon L. Gallet had already established sales offices in both New York City and Chicago, going back over ten years. He had personally suffered a number of long ocean voyages to deliver his wares and to conduct business. Besides his acute knowledge of the growing threat posed by worldwide competition from US manufactures, Gallet understood the tastes of the American consumer and the opportunities the new world also held for the Jura watchmakers. With the now available joint resources from fellow manufacturing members of the Intercantonal Society, Gallet decided to take the competitive battle directly to the enemy. Not only could the rapidly expanding base of American consumers provide opportunities for increased sales of Swiss watches, these sales could provide the needed revenues to meet the expected competitive challenges in Europe. Utilizing his own movements, as well as components by such friends as Auguste Agassiz, Ernest Francillon, Constant Girard-Perregaux, Jules Jeanneret, and Louis and Jules Courvoisier, Gallet began production of 30 new watch brands, most designed specifically to appeal to the taste of the America consumer. Within a short period, exports of Swiss watches to America rapidly increased, greatly expanding the reach of watchmakers whose previous market was limited only to the local economies.