120 YEARS OF HISTORY

Constantine Cottet, manufacturer of spectacles in the family business Fabrique d'Horlogerie & de Lunetterie Jules was born in the city of Morez (France), and came to Barcelona on the occasion of the Universal Exhibition of 1888. What was initially the desire to publicize the optical production of his company Cottet Frères, ended up being a love affair with a city that would respond with equal enthusiasm to the decision to open a store in Barcelona and very soon the clientele would grow to become a true civic institution.

1902

Founded in 1902 by Constantino Cottet, the initial Puerta del Ángel store in Barcelona was the company's headquarters and its most emblematic branch. It was the largest optician's shop in Europe, with 2,000 meters of floor space.

In reality, Cottet was more than a store, due to the dynamism displayed by the management, which imported products that were true novelties in the field of optics, but also included precision devices such as binoculars or telescopes and even in those early years, some offerings of a new art that had a large following in Catalonia: photography.

1930

Constantino Cottet died in 1915, and his three sons had to take over the business. The youngest, Renato, went to Madrid a few years later so that the air of the plateau could be more favorable to his asthmatic ailment and in 1930 he opened an establishment, at 15 Principe Street, while the other two brothers relaunched the brand in Catalonia.

In 1937, due to the Civil War, the three Cottet brothers went to Seville and there they started a small company called Industria Nacional de Óptica, the future Indo.

1950

The fifties and sixties were a real boom for Cottet, partly because the increase in the standard of living of the country's citizens went hand in hand with the evolution of the optician's shop, which was gradually incorporating the concept of fashion due to the interest in glasses shown by the great designers, who, led by Christian Dior, began to create their own models of glasses, some of which were downright daring.

Our customers came from all over Catalonia to our headquarters in Portal del Angel, which became an optical center of reference. Its roots were as remarkable as the endearing popularization of the name "Can Cottet".

1956

In 1956, a gigantic thermometer was inaugurated outside the Cottet building, owned by the family. The thermometer had (and has) a height of five floors, a structure of 570 meters of neon tube and weighs 2,000 kilos. The thermometer ended up becoming a symbol of citizenship, as has been officially recognized by the Barcelona City Council, which declared it to be of social interest.

1995

In 1995, Cottet implemented a new business concept imported from the United States, which consisted of stores specializing in the sale of sunglasses. Thus, in the Maremagnum Shopping Center in Barcelona, a new line of business was born; Cottet Sol, a new line of business.

2002

In 2002 the centenary of the brand was celebrated, one hundred years of history that promised to be one hundred more.

2018

The current generational change in the management of the company takes place, with Javier Cottet as President and Alex Cottet as Vice President (4th generation), and driving a process of professionalization and modernization of the brand with the aim of improving management based on innovation and technology, to maintain and improve in turn the most important aspects of the company: professionalism, quality products and services, customer service and after-sales service, as well as a range of exclusive and differential products.

2021

The 4th Generation has given an important boost to the company, with a new concept of store and brand, based on a more modern and technological store, in which to offer experiences to customers through continuous interaction with the environment. Always thinking by and for the customer