So, just today I saw a really cool watch in a sales post featuring some nice stuff on Instagram. Because it was cheap, I bought it.

I am the Vintage Bloke. It is a vintage, steel-cased auto dress watch. Normally, I'd say try to guess the brand, but you wouldn't. So, guess the holding/family that used to own the brand name of this one. Among some here, a brand that has its roots in it is still popular.

Also, the watch has a certain uncommon feature that you won't guess.

Oh, and those to whom I bragged about it - don't spoil the guessing

Hmmm..

OK, a clue: the holding in question was based in Tramelan.

I know but I ain’t telling. Is an awesome find though.

An Armand Nicolet, by chance?..

Nicolet indeed! But not Armand. Nitella, a brand of the Nicolet Watch holding.

So, could you provide us w/ a little info about the watch & brand?..I admit to not knowing a lot about the brand. .

Nicolet used to be an absolutely massive holding, with key brands being Charles Nicolet and simply Nicolet Watch. However, they seem to have excessively experimented with scores of brand names directed at various markets. In Mikrolisk, the list of trademarks owned by them just goes on and on for pages. In that department, Hans Wilsdorf’s various brand name experiments look small-scale.

Watches made by them under all these brands ranged from the „nothing special” kind all the way to complete calendar chronographs and rattrapantes. By the way, if you stumble upon a vintage chrono powered by the Landeron 39, with some obscure brand name on the dial, there’s a 90% chance it’s by Nicolet.

Nitella appears to have been a brand of Nicolet intended for Sweden, and that’s where most mentions of it seem to lead.