The story of Hexagon Metrology is a story of both recent and traditional brands. The history stretches back to the 19th century - a rich treasure of experience covering almost 200 years that forms the solid foundation for customer-orientated action and future growth.

1819
The company Kern & Co is founded in Aarau, Switzerland. It is one of the forerunners of today's Leica Geosystems AG - along with the company Wild Heerbrugg, that came into life around 100 years later in Heerbrugg, Switzerland.

1833
The company Brown & Sharpe is founded in the USA and develops into one of the best-known and most influential businesses in the machine tool industry.

1869
Ernst Leitz takes over the Optische Institute founded 20 years earlier in Wetzlar, Germany, and calls the company Ernst Leitz.

1911
The company CE Johansson is founded in Eskilstuna, Sweden. The standards of the Swedish founder Carl Edvard Johansson were regarded as the "standard of the standards".

1933
The Sheffield Gage Corporation is born. Initially it traded under the name City Machine and Tool Works - a business that was founded in 1906 by Oscar Polk in Dayton, USA.

1945
The year TESA SA was founded. The business had traded the previous four years as TÉLÉPHONIE SA, a subsidiary of the telecommunications business AUTOFON AG, and tapped new markets with the MINMETAL® micrometer.

1963
DEA is founded in Italy and in the same year builds Alpha - the first coordinate measuring machine in the world. 

1986
Homer Eaton and Romain Granger found ROMER SARL (ROMER France) and launch the portable measuring arm on the market.

1989
ROMER Inc. is founded to market ROMER France products in North America.

1990
Founding of Wilcox Associates, Inc. The business develops PC-DMIS, the world's leading CMM software.

1992
The Swedish concern Hexagon AB is founded. Hexagon Metrology is part of Hexagon Measurement Technologies, a business area of the Hexagon Group.

1994
DEA becomes part of the Brown & Sharpe Metrology Group.

1995
In Israel Prof. Amnon Shashua founds the company CogniTens Ltd. He also develops the initial in-house technology. 

1999
MTWZ is founded as an independent entity with 20 employees from the then Leitz Messtechnik to further develop the existing Quindos measuring software.

2001
The US companies Brown & Sharpe Inc. and Wilcox Inc. are integrated into the Hexagon Group.

2002
The metrology company CE Johansson becomes part of Hexagon Metrology.

2004
The metrology division of Sheffield Automation LLC as well as the companies ROMER S.A.
(ROMER France) and ROMER Inc. (ROMER USA) are now part of Hexagon Metrology.

2005
Hexagon acquires the Swiss company Leica Geosystems AG.

2007
The Hexagon Group acquires CogniTens Ltd.

2008
The German software business MTWZ and the German machine tool probe manufacturer m&h Group are now also part of Hexagon Metrology.

2009
Hexagon announces the acquisition of Technodigit SARL (Lyon, France), developer of 3DReshaper® software and two German companies – Mahr Multisensor GmbH and MYCRONA GmbH, both manufacturers of 3D multi-sensor coordinate measuring machines.

What will the future bring?
The Hexagon Group has a strong base for future organic growth. Hexagon is also evaluating a large number of companies that have the potential to strengthen the product portfolio of Hexagon, or to further improve the sales network in new and existing markets.