Dear All,
Very interesting post, caming to ineresting assumptions and supposition.
E J DenT and M F Dent, as far as it can be established, DID NOT MAKE any watches! A quick view of Dent work ledgers at the Guildhall Library (manuscrip section) will confirm this. For peaple who can not go to the library the book by Vaudrey Mercer "Edward John Dent and is successors" list, at least, 41 supplier of watches, so....
Nicole & Capt, Nicole Nielsen, Nicole Nielsen & Co, Nicole Nielsen & Co ltd, stayled themself as "Wolesale Watch Supplier". If a client asked for a item they did not make, it would have been broght in.
In the last quarter of the XVIII century, nobody, in England could make calender work, so it was sourced from Switzerland,..Vallée de Joux... L B Audemars... Louis Elisée Piguet or others.
North & Sons Ltd carry on the watch business in the same fashion as Nicole & Capt.
This may clear in a small way the confusion.
Sep 29, 2012
It has been very interesting to follow the posts concerning Nicole Nielsen, Charles Frodsham and E J Dent in the last few weeks. Having carried out some research on Nicole Nielsen & Co. I will try to shed some light on the matter.
I am not surprise that a lot of confusion and myths exist about Nicole Nielsen. No official document is extant, no work ledgers.
As a limited company annual account will have been filed at Company House, but these are disposed of after 25 years from the date of closure.
I managed to find with whom they banking but the banking archive in the City had a big clear out in the 1960’s and …..no records there!
However they left a fantastic legacy in their watches, chronographs, split second chronographs, triple complicated watches (calendar, chronograph and minute repeaters), pocket chronometers and….of course tourbillons.
To see the full range (54) of watches produced by the company there is a reprint of their catalogue (c.1910) available on the web.
Nicole Nielsen & Co, late Nicole & Capt could be called “THE MAKER MAKER’S”. Beside, E J Dent, F M Dent, Charles Frodsham, Smiths & Sons Ltd.
at least 30 other retailers are known to have sold Nicole Nielsen watches, and the list continue to grow.
In the Horological Journal, March 1888, a very interesting article report a visit by BHI student in witch is stated that Nicole Nielsen “were mechanized to a very high degree and making everything in House”.
My research has been carried out by looking “sideways”: birth, marriages and deaths
registrations, the censuses from 1841, the work ledgers of Charles Frodsham and E J Dent (now at the Guildhall Library), wills and probate and the archives in Lausanne and Geneva, Switzerland.
Nicole Nielsen started as Nicole & Capt at Le Solliat, an hamlet near the village of Le Sentier in the Vallée de Joux, Switzerland, by the coming together of two very talented watchmakers Charles Victor Adolphe Nicole and Jules Philippe Capt.
Chronology
NICOLE & CAPT (LE SOLLIAT 1837) 1839-1874
NICOLE, NIELSEN 1874-1879
NICOLE, NIELSEN & Co 1879 –1888
NICOLE, NIELSEN & Co Ltd 1888-1917
NORTH & SONS LTD 1917-1933
NICOLE & CAPT set up at 80b DEAN STREET, SOHO, LONDON.
1841 The census list 5 watchmaker living at the above address
1844 Patent n.10,348, This includes the first practical keyless work for both going barrel and fuzee watches. It also includes chronograph work that allowed a second recording hand to returned to zero by mean of a heart-shaped cam.
1844 4 June Adolphe Nicole register his mark with the Goldsmith Company
1851 LONDON GREAT EXIBITION in HIDE PARK. From a report it appears that E.J. DENT exhibited NICOLE keyless work and his repeaters.
1855 PARIS EXHIBITION: for the first time NICOLE & CAPT are exhibiting under their own name.
1858 NICOLE & CAPT move to larger premises to 14 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON.
1862 Nicole takes out another Patent relating to ‘STOP-WATCHES AND TIMEKEEPERS, &c.” Improvement on the castle wheel and the application of the heart-shape cam combine to produce the first CHRONOGRAPH.
1862 LONDON INTERNATIONAL EXIBITON. From the catalogue” NICOLE & CAPT, 14 Soho Square.—Nicole’s patent keyless watch and compteur.”
1869 Sophus Emil Nielsen, a Danish citizen, join Nicole & Capt
1871 from this date NICOLE & CAPT started to produce split second CHRONOGRAPH. (Rattrapante)
1872 June, Harriet Victoire NICOLE married Sophus Emil NIELSEN.
1874 Change of name to NICOLE, NIELSEN.
1876 the 7th August, Charles Victor Adolphe NICOLE died at the age of 64 in STREATHAM, London COUNTY OF SURREY.
1879 23rd May “Charles NICOLE on behalf of self and partners, Emil NIELSEN and Zelia NICOLE, trading as NICOLE, NIELSEN, and CO, 14, Soho Square, Middlesex: Watch Manufactures.” This is the Trade Mark registration, and from this date they will be known as NICOLE NIELSEN & Co. LONDON.
1884 March . An article in the Horological Journal Nicole Nielsen & Co. introduce a new keyless system.
1885 December 31st The Partnership between Charles NICOLE, Zelia NICOLE and Emil NIELSEN is dissolved.
1888 Change of status to NICOLE, NIELSEN & Co LTD. The majority of the shares were bought by The NORTH family and Harrison Mill Frodsham. Emil NIELSEN continues as managing Director.
1899 Sophus Emil NIELSEN died; the company has a new manager and director Robert BENSON NORTH.
1904 THE MANIFACTURE of speedometers is started, it is very successful, a factory is built outside London.
1914 GREAT WAR: NICOLE, NIELSEN & Co LTD is taken over by the government to help with the war effort, they became a major supplier.
1917 The name NICOLE, NIELSEN & Co LTD. sadly disappear. The company will be known as NORTH & SONS and WATFORD Speedometers.
1919 Gold watches to the usual very high standard continue to be made in Soho Square. The effects of the war were felt quite badly and skilled workers were in short supply.
1922 NORTH & SONS started making car clocks.
1929 Economic crash affects NORTH & SONS. . Robert BENSON NORTH died.
1933 the company goes into receivership and is sold off.
Further clarification may be had by
Reading the Horological Journal, March 1888: an article report a visit by BHI student in witch is stated that Nicole Nielsen “were mechanized to a very high degree and making everything in House”.
happy reading
Tony,
Cambridge, England