If you go up to one of Breitling’s loft-style boutiques, come Thursday 3rd September, you’re sure of a big surprise.
A dedicated, safari-inspired corner will have popped up, bearing the logo of a certain ‘Gallet 1826’ in blocky, khaki-military lettering, entirely removed from Breitling’s swirly, chocks-away! retro script over the door. Even more surprisingly, for #watchnerds who thought they knew their stuff, the realisation that such a storied – dare-we-say-it cool – Swiss watch brand has been allowed to lie dormant for so long, let alone in such unfair obscurity.
President Harry S. Truman in Miami, 1949. Truman famously wore a Gallet Flying Officer chronograph, describing it as “the most elaborate watch” he ever owned. Credit: Abbie Rowe / National Park Service / Harry S. Truman Library
The Gallet Flying Officer chronograph, introduced in 1939 and celebrated as one of the earliest watches designed for international travellers and pilots.
President Truman wore Gallet’s totemic ‘Flying Officer’ chronograph in the Forties, declaring it “the most elaborate watch [he] ever wore”. Hell, nothing less than the world’s first powered flight was timed at the behest of a ‘Sun’ Gallet stopwatch, Orville Wright’s 12 seconds airborne at the controls of his and brother Wilbur’s ‘Wright Flyer’ clocked over a beach in North Carolina on 17th December 1903.
The Sun stopwatch by Gallet. A similar instrument was used to time Orville Wright’s 12-second flight at Kitty Hawk on 17 December 1903.
Two American legends, each beholden to one sorely overlooked Swiss name –celebrating its 200th anniversary under the newly forged custody of its historic neighbour in Europe’s highest-altitude city, aka the Jura mountains’ horological heartland, La Chaux-de-Fonds. Gallet being the second acquisition and reboot under Breitling’s aegis and its thrusting CEO, Georges Kern.
Gallet’s historic factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the Swiss watchmaking capital where the brand was founded and where its bicentenary revival now begins.
Kern’s ‘House of Brands’ capsule concept, alongside newly re-marketed Universal Genève brings Breitling and Gallet too under an unprecedented collective uniting history as well as progressive zeitgeist nous.
All of them – including lynchpin Breitling – are utilitarian stopwatch or ‘chronograph’ marques forged in earnest during aviation’s golden, mid-century flourish. But in ‘House of Brands’ guise, is cleverly aligned according to market-savvy accessibility on every level, for what’s otherwise deemed as sweeping, deliberately obfuscatory similarity, to casual eyes at least.
Under one umbrella, this unusual enterprise aims for the trio to benefit from a shared visionary strategy. Breitling itself refers to this horological ménage à trois as a ‘portfolio’ – the opportunity to drive the Swiss watchmaking landscape with a strategy that “covers the full luxury spectrum, from luxury entry-level to super-luxury, without overstretching any one brand,” in the typically astute words of Kern himself (now nine years on from his exit at the helm of similarly historic pilot-watchmakers IWC Shaffhausen.
“At the same time, it reflects how today’s consumers experience watchmaking, moving fluidly between categories, value, heritage and design.”
With Breitling placed firmly in the middle, as aviation’s rocksolid go-to (viz. Forties’ ‘Huit’ cockpit stopwatches for RAF bombers, then civil pilots’ eternal ‘Navitimter’ wristwatch with sliderule bezel), bookending this horological triptych are two revived names that reach beyond the dyed-in-the-wool flyboy tropes. At one end of the spectrum is Universal Genève, which has been, since the 1960s, known as ‘Le Couturier de la Montre’ (the tailor of watchmaking) while on the other hand, we have the reminted Gallet, which Kern’s House of Brands is pushing with a very particular buzzword: ‘wanderlust’.
In other words, flying at lower altitude (both pricepoint-wise and navigationally) with an in-house-produced ‘my first proper Swiss-made adventure watch’ for younger, pluckier globetrotters.
It’s what Bremont started doing 20 years ago in Oxfordshire, and is coming back to now, under new stewardship. It’s stylish tool watchmaking for stylish men… and women? To be honest, we don’t know for sure – Breitling are being firm about that September 3rd reveal. And do bear in mind that Universal Genève may well be back in the business of making the ‘Tricompax’ four-subdial chronograph that made it a legend, but no one expected the big reveal in Geneva back in April to include such a revival of so many tres chic feminine cocktail models.
The Gallet MultiChron Regulator, a specialist chronograph designed for precise elapsed-time measurement and professional timing applications.
“Breitling remains the core brand and cornerstone of House of Brands,” Kern reminds us, “While, as of early September this year, Gallet will [address] the luxury entry-level segment, which has been abandoned by many watch brands.
“Gallet is a key piece of the puzzle, allowing us to re-enter a price segment that Breitling and many competitors have moved away from in recent years,” says Kern, again, astutely.
The MultiChron Clamshell, introduced in 1938 and widely regarded as one of the world’s first waterproof chronographs.
Julien Gallet’s grandson climbed and documented alpine routes, contributing to early exploration guides. One trail in the Bernese Oberland still carries his name: the Galletgrat. Then, in 1938, Gallet introduced the MultiChron Clamshell, one of the first waterproof chronographs, built to perform when conditions were at their harshest.
A year later, as air travel expanded across continents and time zones, Gallet introduced aforementioned Flying Officer chronograph, designed to help pilots track local time at literal milestone refuelling stops heading west-to-east across the newly navigable globe.
Early intercontinental air travel relied on a network of refuelling stops across continents and time zones, the very conditions for which Gallet designed the Flying Officer.
These are the historic milestones Breitling is communicating ahead of September 3rd. And the likes of Hamilton, Tudor, Baume & Mercier, Bremont, Montblanc, Certina et al. should be looking back over their sheepskinned shoulders.
Gallet Flying Officer from 1939
Gallet Multichron Clamshell from ca. 1938
Gallet Multichron Clamshell from ca. 1938
Gallet, with Breitling spotting them in ascent of whatever Alpine precipice, stands to gain the literal edge.
In anticipation of a full relaunch on September 3rd, Gallet unveils its new creative identity through a website dedicated to the great escape: gallet.com
