Nicole & Capt

Keyless work, 1844

Adolphe Nicole & Jules Capt, manufacturers of the first successful keyless watches that could be wound and set without opening the case, suppliers to Messrs Dent only at this period, and later to many other top retailers. Adolphe Nicole, Patent No. 10,348 of October 1844, includes the first commercially successful keyless work for both going-barrel and fusee watches. (A) This keyless system is the most recognisable and yet even this seemingly simple design, shows differences and development worthy of attention. The mechanism is mounted on the upper plate of the watch and can be clearly seen when opening the watch back. The earliest type, as shown in the 1844 patent, has the large winding wheel operating the hand setting wheel in the centre of the plate by an intermediate wheel which is permanently attached to the setting wheel. It has one drawback that, when fully wound, the hands can only be set by turning them backwards. Later watches, almost certainly dating from 1855 when a provisional patent was taken out in the name of Adolphe’s nephew David L. A. Nicole, has the intermediate wheel attached to the winding wheel which overcame the problem (A)

Adolphe Nicole’s chronograph patent, 1844 and 1862

Adolphe Nicole, Patent No 10,348 of October 1844 mentioned before, includes, amongst other important features, the first commercially successful keyless work for both going-barrel and fusee watches, as well as the heart-shaped cam for zeroing chronograph hands. Adolphe Nicole, Patent No 1461 of May 1862, includes the castle wheel (column wheel), and it is from this time, not before, that Nicole & Capt’s English chronographs start to be made. Swiss made chronographs, copying the work of Nicole, do not start to appear until the 1880’s. (A)