English pocket watch with chronograph and tachy scale Circa 1890

Gold hunting cased pocket watch by Nicole Nielsen & Co.
–
A very fine, heavy English hunting-cased pocket watch with chronograph and tachy scale, circa 1890. The watch features an 18-carat polished gold case with an engraved cartouche, a reeded band, a gold dome, and a case maker’s punch mark CNEN. Its enamel dial is signed and showcases radial Roman hours, auxiliary seconds at 9, a tachy scale, a centre chronograph hand, and blued spade hands. The watch has a 4/5 plate movement that is frosted, gilt and signed. It has screwed chatons, an English lever escapement, a large gold screw compensation balance, and a florally engraved balance cock.
–

Diameter: 52 mm
–
Weight: 150 g
–
Signed: Nicole Nielsen & Co., 14 Soho Square, London
–
The company’s history dates back to 1837 when the Swiss parent company Nicole & Capt was founded in Geneva. In 1840, Adolphe Nicole and his partner Henry Capt opened a branch in London. After the death of Henry Capt in 1843, Jules Pierre Capt took his place as a partner. A year later, Adolphe Nicole received his first patent. In 1862 and 1870, he obtained two more patents for a chronograph movement and an escapement with constant force, respectively, which he called a resilient lever. After Jules Pierre Capt passed away in 1876, Sophus Emil Nielsen, who had married Nicole’s daughter, joined the company as a partner, and it has been operating under the name Nicole Nielsen & Co. ever since.