Gallet Watches Reborn at 200: What You Need to Know About the Brand's Modern Revival

Amidst the flurry of new watch releases during this eventful Geneva Watch Days week, a major historical Swiss brand, albeit one largely unknown to younger enthusiasts, has made a triumphant comeback. Gallet, a 200-year-old tool-watch specialist that has been a favorite of racing drivers, aviators, and at least one U.S. President, has become the third pillar of the recently established, Breitling-anchored House of Brands, focused on the themes of wanderlust and adventure and offering a value proposition rarely found in its segment. Read on to discover more about the new Gallet and how its modern lineup builds upon the milestone accomplishments of its storied past. 

While Gallet traces its history all the way back to 1826, when it was founded in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the ancestral cradle of Swiss watchmaking, by Julian Gallet, its roots run even deeper. It was in the year 1466 that Julian’s grandfather, clockmaker Humbertus Gallet, became a citizen of Geneva, Switzerland and established the multi-generational family trade in horology. Like every other 19th Century watchmaking firm in Switzerland, Gallet et Cie. started out making pocket watches, but it began production of wristwatches as early as 1896, long before the style became widely popular in the years following World War I. 

Photo: National Air and Space Museum

Gallet’s business in the United States started as early as 1856, spearheaded by Julian’s son Leon Gallet, a frequent visitor to the young country. Its first official U.S. distributor, Jules Racine & Co., was established in New York City in 1890 by Julian Gallet’s grandson, Jules Racine, who ran the company for 45 years. During this period, Gallet watches earned a place in American, world, and horological history, worn in 1903 by flight pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright to time their flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, One of these pocketwatches (above), called “The Sun,” is proudly displayed at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. 

Gallet introduced its most memorable and impactful watches in the early to mid-20th Century, several of which are reproduced in the new models listed below. The rise of automobiles and the growth of aviation opened up new opportunities for the types of tool watches that were Gallet’s specialty,. The brand remained popular, and owned by the Gallet family, until 1994, despite a period of dormancy necessitated by the 1970s-'80s Quartz Crisis . After two subsequent decades, during which Gallet maintained a mostly low-key presence in the worldwide watch industry, Breitling, which had recently snapped up another historic, largely dormant Swiss watchmaker, Universal Genève, acquired Gallet as the third pillar of its “House of Brands” multi-brand growth strategy. The timing was fortuitous, and perhaps not at all random: Gallet’s relaunch under the Breitling House of Brands comes in the year that the firm celebrates its 200th anniversary.

“Gallet has a rich history,” proclaims Erwan Rossignol, Gallet’s Managing Director, on the eve of the relaunch. “It was a leader in chronographs, producing iconic products like the Multichron and Flying Officer. It was also a pioneer in innovation, [such as in developing] the clamshell case, which was the basis for the first dustproof, waterproof chronograph watches in the industry. What we [at Breitling] wanted to do was bring back a brand that many people had forgotten about but which brought so much to the watch industry back in those days. And it was very important that we kept the brand’s ‘pioneer’ DNA while also positioning it within the affordable luxury segment.”

That DNA, which the brand translates into the general theme of “wanderlust,” underpins the modern-day Gallet models, all of which have roots in earlier timepieces but also strive for contemporary appeal. “It is a very lean collection, very easy to understand, yet very versatile,” Rossignol says. “When you revive a brand, you need to find the right balance between being true to the original — not cutting those roots — and at the same time not being a museum brand.” Here is a detailed look at the “new” Gallet and its core collections.

[shoppable-product-slim handle="flying-officer-chronograph-40mm-black-on-bracelet"]

The Flying Officer is the longest-pedigreed model in the revived Gallet collection, first released in 1939, amid an era of expanding international travel. Worn by President Harry S. Truman, who called it “the most elaborate watch [he] ever saw,” and who had it commissioned for U.S. Army Air Force (USAF) pilots, the Flying Officer is believed to be the first wristwatch to combine the two crucial functions of tracking multiple time zones and recording elapsed time. Its water-resistant "clamshell" case measured 34.5mm and contained the manually winding Venus 150 caliber. Its rotating 12-hour bezel and ring of 23 world cities printed around the dial’s periphery proved to be essential tools for U.S. and Allied military pilots (the watches’ original intended audience) and eventually earned a host of civilian fans — beyond the one in the Oval Office — as well.

[shoppable-product-slim handle="flying-officer-automatic-date-40mm-orange-on-strap"]

In its modern incarnation, the Gallet Flying Officer is offered in two executions, both in a contemporary 40mm stainless steel case: an instrument-style chronograph that calls to mind the model’s utilitarian origins, and an automatic (above) with a more streamlined look. The chronographs, which are powered by the automatic, Sellita SW510-based Gallet Caliber 23, offer two contrasting colorways for the tone-on-tone two-register dials, either light blue or black. The automatics contain another Sellita-based, self-winding movement, the Gallet 17 (this one built upon the ubiquitous SW200), with dials in either dark blue or an eye-catching orange (above) that Gallet says is inspired by the patina of an aged vintage model. 

Both versions feature a date window at 3 o’clock, and the Flying Officer’s hallmark world-city scale on the flange; the chronographs, in keeping with their historical design, have both the scale and a 12-hour rotating bezel. Power reserves are 62 hours for the chronographs and 41 hours for the automatics. The Flying Officer Automatic retails for $2,900 on a strap, and $3,100 on a steel bracelet, while the Chronograph is priced at $4,400 on a strap and $4,600 on a bracelet.

In the same vein of aviation instruments for which it had become well known, Gallet introduced the Multichron Pilot in 1969. Its design was meant to be more streamlined than the Flying Officer and also more versatile, eschewing the 23-city world-time scale in favor of a pair of other scales: a tachymeter, used not only by pilots but also motorsport drivers who needed to track speeds; and a telemeter, for measuring the distance between the wearer and an audible event like an oncoming thunderstorm. 

[shoppable-product-slim handle="multichron-pilot-chronograph-42mm-blue-on-bracelet"]

Today’s version of the Multichron Pilot, which contains the same Gallet Caliber 23 as the Flying Officer, measures 42mm in steel and features two high-contrast colorways on its dial: black with white subdials (the popular “reverse panda”), or blue with black subdials, both with subtle 6 o’clock date windows and a telemeter scale occupying the dial’s outer edge. The dials have a pebbled texture that adds depth, and the luminous-coated hands and bidirectional 12-hour bezel for tracking a second time zone help further emphasize this model as the modern Gallet’s quintessential “go anywhere, do anything” timepiece. Prices are the same as those for the Flying Officer Chronograph: $4,400 on a strap and $4,600 on a bracelet. 

Tracing its most direct inspiration to the Multichron 12 Scientific, a multipurpose chronograph watch first made in the 1940s but made popular in the ‘60s, the Multichron Sport editions interpret the brand’s tool-watch savoir-faire in a more earthbound execution, designed around motorsport timing and off-road adventuring. The model's stainless steel case measures 41mm and has a thin, stationary bezel with no 12-hour scale. The bicolor, three-register dials are available in dark blue (with black subdials) or black (with white subdials), highlighted by bright orange chronograph hands and a date window tucked into the 6 o’clock subdial. As you’d infer from this dial layout, the movement inside is the Gallet 23 chronograph caliber, with its power reserve of nearly two and a half days. The Multichron Sport models share the same strap-and-bracelet pricing as the Multichron Pilots, from $4,400 to $4,600.

Across the collection’s three major pillars, Gallet has also instituted a user-friendly feature. Despite the variety of case diameters, each watch is designed with the same spacing between the lugs, ensuring that the variety of leather, rubber, and fabric straps offered, as well as the stainless steel bracelets, can be swapped easily between models and without the need for tools. The bracelets and straps all feature a quick-release mechanism and the bracelets are equipped with an integrated micro-adjustment system, all in the service of optimal fit and comfort for the wearer.

Managing Director Erwan Rossignol returns to the concept of balancing vintage appeal with modernity in explaining the importance of the interchangeable strap concept. “You need to stay true to the past but also listen to the customers and make sure you’re addressing their needs,” he says. “The strap interchangeability is a key asset. When you buy a Gallet watch, you can dress it the way you want. It is important to give this freedom to the customer, and it helps to keep the collection leaner than adding multiple watch heads would.”

What would a revival of a 200-year-old watch brand be these days without some honest-to-gosh vintage re-editions? This is what we get with the so-called Classics series, a trio of tribute watches, all sized at a more era-appropriate 38mm in diameter, all offered exclusively on straps and all powered by the same high-end, hand-wound movement, Breitling’s Caliber B09 (above) — the first hint of technical integration across the three watchmaking maisons under the recently formed House of Brands (Breitling, Gallet, and Universal Genève, whose return I cover in detail here). The presence of this high-end, column-wheel-integrated chronograph movement brings the price of the Classics editions a bit higher, to $6,700..

[shoppable-product-slim handle="classics-g09-tribute-to-multichron-yachting-38mm-white-on-strap"]

The first of the Classics is the Tribute to Multichron Yachting Big Eye, a re-edition of a 1960s chronograph watch specifically engineered for regatta racing. Its name comes from the “Big Eye” countdown display, an outsized subdial at 3 o’clock with alternating red and blue sectors that can track the pre-start phase of a yacht race in the final minutes before the starting gun. The pristine white dial also has a tone-on-tone subdial parallel to the “Big Eye” countdown register for the running seconds. The 38mm size is slightly upsized from the 35mm original, and the Breitling B09 caliber replaces the manually wound Valjoux 7733 inside the models from the 1960s and ‘70s. 

[shoppable-product-slim handle="classics-g09-tribute-to-multichron-45-38mm-black-on-strap"]

The Tribute to Multichron 45 edition reimagines a popular mid-20th Century chronograph geared toward aviation and auto racing and notably named for its signature feature, a 45-minute totalizer subdial at 3 o’clock. The modern iteration features a black dial with tone-on-tone subdials at 3 and 9 o’clock (for 30 elapsed minutes, not 45, and running seconds, respectively), luminous treatment on the hands and indexes, and concentric tachymeter and telemeter scales framing the dial. The pump-style chrono pushers and overall thin profile are also callbacks to the vintage models, which ranged in size between 34mm and 36mm. 

Rounding out the first wave of Gallet Classics is the Tribute to Silverlight, whose most direct inspiration is a vintage model called the Multichron Navigator; that model's noteworthy element (not replicated on this modern re-edition) was an extra compass hand that oriented a wearer toward true north. The silver-toned dial, with its distinctive Arabic numeral font, thin baton hands, and bicompax subdial arrangement, recalls not only the Navigator models but also other Gallet tool watches of yesteryear. The Breitling B09 manually wound movement inside the case, as in all of the Classics models, not only boasts a COSC chronometer certification for timekeeping reliability and accuracy but also a 70-hour power reserve.

Whether future editions of the Gallet Classics series will continue to exclusively use manually wound movements, or whether some may eventually incorporate automatic ones, such as Breitling’s well-established Caliber B01, is yet to be determined, according to Rossignol. What is not in doubt, however, is that the synergy between Gallet and Breitling will continue to play a role in growing the revived Gallet brand. “We will continue to be a sibling of Breitling,” Rossignol says. “Everything will be assembled at Breitling Chronometrie in La Chaux-de-Fonds. We are working with the same suppliers. Along the whole lifecycle of the [Gallet] product, after-sale service will be maintained by Breitling watchmakers. In terms of distribution, you will find Gallet at Breitling boutiques and at our trusted multi-brand partners. With all that, Gallet will still have its own distinctive identity and will be a very complementary addition to the other two brands.” You can learn more at gallet.com