Gallet

Julien Gallet, from a Geneva family of goldsmiths and watchmakers, settled in La Chaux-de-Fonds around 1826 and later took his sons into partnership as J. Gallet & Cie. The United States became the firm's main market in the second half of the nineteenth century; from 1883 Julien-Louis Gallet was in partnership with Jules Racine, who handled the American business from New York. Recent research describes Gallet in this period as essentially a trading and finishing house that bought movements from many suppliers, which explains why Gallet chronographs contain calibres by several different makers.

In 1907 Gallet combined with the Electa factory. Its chronographs and timers — including the Multichron range of the 1930s and the Flying Officer of 1939, with a rotating world-time bezel — were widely used by pilots, racing teams and the military. Like many smaller Swiss firms it declined in the quartz era. Breitling acquired the name in 2025 with the intention of reviving it. The company's claims that a Gallet stopwatch timed the Wright brothers' flights in 1903 and that the family's watchmaking goes back to 1466 come from Gallet's own history and are not confirmed by the records in this catalogue.