Across the past few years Georges Kern has been a busy man. After strengthening Breitling’s position in the watch industry as CEO, he unveiled his even more dramatic plans to launch a luxury wristwatch group called House of Brands. Under this new business, Breitling would be the centrepiece brand with a new high end brand positioned above them and a more affordable brand below, with both of those accompanying brands being heritage revivals. The high end brand is Universal Genève, who had their relaunch in April, and now at Geneva Watch Days the lower brand is having their revival: Gallet.
Originally founded in 1826, this moment couldn’t be more auspicious as Gallet are being relaunched on what is the 200th anniversary of the original brand. On our guide to the oldest watch brands, you’d find them nestled between Bovet and H. Moser – they are absent from our graph due to being non-operational at time of publication. The original Gallet was best known for their chronographs, with their most significant historical achievement being the timing of the Wright Brothers’ first powered flight (arguably the most significant moment in chronograph aviation history until Omega landed on the moon).
Modern Gallet aims to celebrate that heritage with an equally impressive range of chronographs that consists of four collections. There’s the Flying Officer, Multichron Sport, Multichron Pilot and Classics. We’ll start with the Classics collection because we got hands-on with all three references in that series to give you our first impressions.
Gallet Classics
The Gallet Classics series consists of three references that are modern reinterpretations of iconic watches from Gallet’s past. They were researched and designed with the help of Gallet historians, collectors and enthusiasts to ensure they are faithful to the original designs while offering contemporary specifications.
First up is the Tribute to Multichron Yachting Big Eye with its white dial, black Arabic numerals and red/blue regatta timer. There are multiple styles of regatta timer but this is the simplest, splitting a 30-minute chronograph subdial into five minute intervals so that it’s easy for yacht racers to track the time leading up to the start of a race. The ‘Big Eye’ moniker refers to the fact that this subdial is larger than the other, pulling focus towards the most important part of the display. With that burst of colour, it’s definitely the most eye-catching of the three.
Second is Tribute to Multichron 45, which is the black edition with small chronograph subdials. The original Multichron 45 was Gallet’s high precision chronograph, designed to time small intervals as precisely as possible. That’s why it has smaller subdials on the display so that the timing scales can be larger and easier to read. It also introduces a tachymeter and telemeter scale around the peripheral edge, allowing you to calculate speed over a known distance or distance to an event you can both see and hear. Those scales add purpose to the improved legibility of the timing scales. With its predominantly black and white display it carries a mid-20th century military watch appeal as well.
Third and final is the Tribute to Silverlight, based on the Multichron Navigator. The Navigator had a special party trick in the form of a compass indication that hasn’t been included on the Silverlight, which is why they have different names. But aesthetically, the Silverlight uses the stylised Arabic numerals that were a prominent feature of the Navigator. With its clean, sunray brushed dial in silver, this feels like a watch ready to hop on a retro greyhound bus or streamliner train and accompany you on your travels.
All three Gallet Classics share the same case design and movement. At 38mm they are super comfortable on the wrist and fall into that category of retro watch sizing that has been popular across the past 24 months. Although arguably vintage chronographs would be similar sizes to modern tool watches in order to improve readability while housing bulky chronograph movements. However, that’s the smallest remark and I really like the size they are.
Inside, they make good use of House of Brands relationship by using the Breitling B09 manual-winding chronograph movement with 70-hour power reserve. Being manual not only gives you that vintage feel but also helps keep the proportions slimmer without the need to house a rotor.
All three are priced at £5,300, which is the new top end pricing for Gallet. That makes sense because these watches use Breitling movements and this is a similar price to an entry level Breitling such as a Chronomat 40mm for example.
Price and Specs:
Gallet Flying Officer
The next collection is the Gallet Flying Officer – originally launched in 1939 and worn by historic figures like Harry S. Truman. It’s a dual time zone watch (available with or without chronograph) equipped with a cities scale similar to a world time display. Originally that cities scale displayed prominent air refuelling locations as an aid to pilots, but the modern Flying Officer has swapped those for travel spots. It intentionally mixes popular and niche cities to capture the spirit of the modern adventurer.
It measures 40mm in steel with a 12-hour scale on the bezel for timing multiple time zones. The chronograph edition features pump pushers on either side of the 3 o’clock crown. Powering the chrono is the Gallet 23 Chronograph movement, based on the Sellita SW510 with 65-hour power reserve. It’s available with either a black or light blue dial.
For the non-chronograph model, they instead use the Gallet 17 (Sellita SW200) movement with 41-hour power reserve. This version has either an electric blue or orange dial. As a well established fan of the colour orange on watches, I do like its use here in combination with an olive cities ring. All the core collection models feature the same lug width, making them compatible with the full range of strap and bracelet options.
The Flying Officer automatic is priced at £2,200 on strap and £2,400 on bracelet, making them the most affordable watches in the range. The chronograph versions are then priced at £3,400 on strap and £3,600 on bracelet, which as you will see is the common pricing across all of their Gallet 23 calibre chronographs.
Price and Specs:
Gallet Multichron Pilot
The Multichron Pilot was originally launched in 1969, before the brand started to experience the decline many traditional watch brands felt in the 70s and 80s with the advent of the quartz crisis. It’s a chronograph built for pilots with a dual time bezel for tracking multiple time zones. In its modern iteration, it’s a sporty tricompax chronograph with a 42mm diameter steel case. A practical instrument for daily use.
It has a cool grainy texture dial in either reverse panda or blue colourways. I really like the reverse panda because it’s paired with an orange telemeter scale that really pops. A telemeter scale works by timing the difference between when you see an event occur and when you hear it, which allows you to calculate how far away it is. Useful for knowing if a storm is coming towards you or getting further away.
Powering the Multichron Pilot is the Gallet 23 Chronograph movement, the same Sellita SW510 based calibre that’s used in the chronograph Flying Officer above. It offers a 65-hour power reserve, which is very good for a chronograph. If you’re looking for an affordable alternative to the Rolex Daytona, you could do significantly worse than this.
It uses their new standard pricing for Gallet 23 chronograph watches. Meaning it is £3,400 on strap and £3,600 on bracelet. It’s an interesting price point for chronographs to sit as many chronos tend to fall at either sub £2,000 or over £5,000. So Gallet is offering a good mid-range.
Price and Specs:
Gallet Multichron Sport
Gallet’s Multichron Sport is based on the 1960s Multichron 12. On a surface level it bears some similarities to the Multichron Pilot because it’s a tricompax chronograph powered by the Gallet 23 movement, but there are some major structural and aesthetic differences.
To start with, it measures 41mm in diameter, making it slimmer than its Pilot counterpart. It also uses wide pushers rather than pump pushers, which completely changes the silhouette of the piece. It also has a fixed, smooth bezel with a polished finish. Interestingly, that actually makes it feel less authentically sporty despite it being the sport model.
The dial features three chronograph subdials and a peripheral tachymeter scale for calculating speed. There are two colourways available and they’re the same pairings as seen on the Pilot: reverse panda and blue, although this time they’re smooth rather than grained. They also make use of orange as an accent colour across the chronograph timing hands.
Like all the core collection models in the Flying Officer, Multichron Pilot and Multichron Sport ranges, they have interchangeable strap and bracelet options, allowing you to personalise them according to taste. They are also priced at £3,400 or £3,600 depending on those strap and bracelet options.
Price and Specs:
More details at Gallet.
