At the age of nineteen, Joseph Bulova emigrated from Bohemia - now the Czech Republic - to a world brimming with opportunity. He arrived on Ellis Island in 1870 and, after serving an apprenticeship at Tiffany's, opened his own jewellery store on Maiden Lane in Lower Manhattan, the heart of New York City's jewellery industry. He called it J. Bulova, and quickly distinguished himself from his competition with the superlative quality of his work.