It all started in 1908, when Morris Cooper opened a small factory in East London, UK which became the first factory in Europe to produce denim clothing. Initially operating under the name M. Cooper (Overalls) Ltd., the company produced denim workwear suits.

During World War I, the factory, which employed over 600 people at the time, suspended workwear production to manufacture uniforms, kit bags, and rucksacks for the British Army. When World War II broke out in 1939, the company split into two branches: one continued to produce workwear, and the other focused on military uniforms, battle gear, and flight overalls. M. Cooper (Overalls) became one of the major suppliers to the British Armed Forces.

However, Lee Cooper took on its modern form in 1946.

In 1940, Maurice died in a car accident, and only six years later his son Harold began to revive the brand, taking control of the company into his own hands. He set about modernizing the company and building on its wartime success, switching focus to casual wear and denim production. As part of a re-branding strategy, the company was rechristened, with Harold adding a version of his wife’s family name, Leigh, to his own to create “Lee Cooper”.

In 1953, Cooper created a completely new design for women’s jeans by moving the zipper from the side seam to the front. The new models caused a real shock among the public, and it was thanks to this decision that Lee Cooper jeans gained popularity among the youth audience. In 1955, Lee Cooper opened its first factory outside the UK – in Holland. In the late 50s and early 60s, the company continued its development, launching new production in Ireland and France. The brand’s designers developed their own signature symbol personifying freedom – an embroidery on the back pocket in the form of a seagull wing. In 1985, the company introduced the public to an especially soft denim (a twill weave fabric) to emphasize the difference between European jeans and American ones.

Since then, Lee Cooper has been a leader in British denim production. Lee Cooper is, in fact, Europe’s oldest jeans company.

In 1989, the Cooper family sold their majority stake in the business and since then Lee Cooper has become a ‘lifestyle’ brand, operating in more than seventy markets across the world.

In 2013, Iconix Brand Group acquired Lee Cooper from Sun Capital Partners. (Iconix Brand Group, Inc. is an American brand management company that licenses brands to retailers and manufacturers, primarily in the apparel, footwear and apparel accessory industries.)

Over 100 years, Lee Cooper is one of the world’s most famous denim brands. Now sold in over 100 countries throughout the globe through over 7000 points of sale including 500 mono-brand retail stores and instore areas in some of the world’s leading retail companies.

A true British passion for jeans and a commitment to quality have made the brand a pioneer of authentic denim, eventually expanding its range to include watches and accessories.

Since 2000s Lee Cooper continue the success of denim and accessory collections with watches and eyewear collections. Now Lee Cooper London watch collections have wide product range such as Classic, Casual, Fashion and Vintage and more than 1000 watch models appeals to every taste and style.

Lee Cooper London strives to keep up with the times and lives by the principle of constant development and improvement, just like the brand’s young audience.

Production of watches under the Lee Cooper London brand began in 2004. In 2009, Planet Time Group (the distributor in Israel of famous watch brands Hugo Boss, Dolce & Gabbana, Guess and Festina) has won an international franchise to produce and manufacture a collection of watches for British fashion company Lee Cooper. In 2010, Lee Cooper watches were first presented at the BaselWorld watch and jewelry exhibition.

LC (License Company) International Watches Ltd (founded in 2012) has received the Lee Cooper’s global license for watches in 2012. LC International Watches has become the official fashion watch manufacturer in collaboration with global Lee Cooper brand. LC International performed its world premiere Lee Cooper Watches for watch’s lovers at the BaselWorld 2014.

Since 2017, Lee Cooper has begun to reflect its success in denim and accessory collections to all watches and eyewear collections by combining the experiences and history of Arikan Time.

Watches mean for existing Lee Cooper brand lovers – urban young people, who enjoy city life and quickly grab on the latest trends. Their watches follow all the modern technologies, they are very precisely and meticulously designed, using high quality techniques and materials. Drawing inspiration from the streets of East London, designers create new watch collections with British elegance and practicality.

Up-to-the-minute in terms of trends and technology, Lee Cooper watches are as high quality as they are reasonably priced. The brand uses durable mineral glass, nickel-free 316L steel for its watch back cover and bracelets (this material offers exceptional corrosion resistance, making it highly durable and ideal for timepieces exposed to various environmental factors), and supermetal for complex watch cases, and also coats the cases with an environmentally friendly and durable PVD system. (Physical Vapour Deposition, which is essentially an ionic plating process in which the surface of the part is coated with a very hard metal). All watches are water resistant up to 10 ATM and equipped with first-class movements from Miyota, Epson (Seiko), Sunon, Seagull and PTS Resources Limited.