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Joël Pynson
January 2026
1. Armand Nicolet
According to the official account, which has been repeated by several websites that pay little attention to historical facts, Armand Nicolet is said to have founded his company around 1875 and then passed it on to his son Willy in 1939 [1]
Armand Nicolet did indeed die in 1939, but he was 55 years old at the time [2]. He therefore could not have founded his business nine years before he was born… His father, Alcide, was a watchmaker, and it may have been he who already owned a factory in Tramelan.
Armand Nicolet actually began his official business in 1911, when he partnered with Georges-Gustave Gagnebin to establish the Gagnebin & Nicolet factory in Tramelan [3].
1913
The Niga brand (short for NIcolet-GAgnebin) was in use as early as 1916.
In 1929, the company took over the Tramelan-based Jacot & Monnier factory, which produced Postala watches [4]. It then changed its name to Gagnebin and Nicolet, Niga and Postala Watch Manufactory.
But in 1932, Armand Nicolet left the company. He was replaced by Georges’s wife, Adèle Gagnebin-Rossel, and the company changed its name once again to Gagnebin et Cie, Niga and Postala Watch Manufactory [5].
Meanwhile, that same year, Armand Nicolet founded his own watchmaking company under his own name and registered the Telda trademark (an anagram of Delta, which was also registered that same year) [5].
1935
2. Montres Telda
When Armand Nicolet died in 1939, his sons founded the company Les Fils d’Armand Nicolet, Manufacture des montres Telda [6]. The sons were Marc, Fernand, Edgar, and Willy Nicolet, with Willy taking over as head of the company. In 1942, the word “manufacture” was replaced by “fabrique.”
1940
In 1944, Marc and Fernand left the company, which was thereafter managed solely by Edgar and Willy [7]. Edgar died in 1952 and was succeeded by Marcel Nicolet [8].
Telda watches are very classic, with a complete line of men’s and women’s watches, as well as chronographs.
1950
1955
In 1958, Telda launched a remarkable model: the Telda Ajustor. This watch features two small pushers that allow the wearer to set the time ahead or behind. Pressing either pusher advances or sets the watch back by 6 seconds per day.
1958
The collections are expanding to include automatic watches and diving watches.
1959
1961
With the end of the watchmaking status that had protected the Swiss watch industry until the early 1960s, competition intensified, and many companies joined forces to streamline their production, development, and sales.
Thus, in 1965, Telda joined Cominter, a company created to set up assembly lines and promote sales for several manufacturers in the Tramelan region [9]: Nicolet Watch, Droz & Cie, Bétina, Loyal, Paul Virgile Matthez, Les fils d’Armand Nicolet, and Nitella.
1967
In 1967, Telda acquired the Postala and Niga brands from Gagnebin et Cie [10].
Like many Swiss watch manufacturers, Telda struggled during the 1970s due to the “quartz crisis,” and the company went bankrupt in 1984 [11].
3. Nicolet SA
But the story doesn’t end there. In 1984, Liliane Nicolet-Rossel, wife of Willy Nicolet, founded the company Liliane Nicolet, Montres Delta in Tramelan [11]. Renamed L. Nicolet & Cie in 1990, the company was acquired in 1991 by Rolando Braga, and the Telda and Armand Nicolet brands were revived [12]
Finally, in 1995, the company became Nicolet SA [13]. Its operations included the manufacture of mechanical watches under the Telda brand, featuring ETA movements—particularly chronographs—as well as the production of private-label watches.
1995
1997
1997
Nicolet SA also produces small batches of watches with vintage movements.
In 2001, Nicolet SA, which now operates in both Switzerland and Italy, launched the Armand Nicolet brand, featuring collections of mechanical watches as well as small-batch watches with vintage movements.
1999
2001
The company is still in business in Tramelan: https://www.armandnicolet.com/
[1] https://www.armandnicolet.com/history ,
[2] La Fédération Horlogère, 1939, 25, p. 227
[3] FOSC 1911
[4] FOSC 1929
[5] FOSC 1932
[6] FOSC 1939
[7] FOSC 1944
[8] FOSC 1952
[9] FOSC 1965
[10] FOSC 1967
[11] FOSC 1984
[12] FOSC 1991
The FOSC (Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce) is available at E-periodica
Notes:
About Time To Tell: Time To Tell has one of the largest private digitized databases on the history of Swiss watchmaking, with over 2.5 TB of data on more than 1,000 Swiss watch manufacturers. This database has been built up over a period of around 30 years and continues to be updated with around 50 to 100 GB of data each year. The database consists of historical documents, mainly Swiss trade journals, dating from the late 19th century to the late 20th century. Most of these documents are not available on the Internet. The historical articles published on the time2tell.com website always cite the sources used.
Time To Tell is a private company, independent of any watch manufacturer.
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