Will Breitling’s Gallet Acquisition Reshuffle The List Of The Top 10 Watch Brands?

About five years ago, when another vintage Gallet chronograph watch landed in my collection, I told my wife what I had been daydreaming of for quite a while: “I will buy the Gallet brand someday!” Well, it seems that I was not the only one.

Immediately after I learned about Breitling’s plans to acquire Gallet a few years ago, I felt sad. I truly had intended to buy the Gallet brand, however ludicrous that may sound. On the other hand, the idea of Gallet, my most beloved watch brand of all, rising from the ashes under Breitling’s management was beyond exciting. That’s mainly because we all know how much the current people at Breitling understand a brand’s heritage and how they should treat it. For me, this article is one of the most exciting ones I have written since I joined the Fratello editors’ team more than six years ago. So, let’s look at what exactly Breitling bought, the reasoning behind it, and what next year’s Gallet brand relaunch could look like.

Gallet means potential

Since Kern’s squad arrived at Breitling, two books on the Navitimer and Premier have been published. Despite multiple false promises made by previous Gallet brand owners, there is no book on Gallet history yet. And that’s a shame because there is so much to write about. If we look at the breadth and diversity of the portfolio of Gallet chronographs since the 1930s, it’s pretty astonishing, including multiple innovations and a series of specialized chronographs. We will look into the top models in Gallet history in a separate deep-dive article tomorrow.

Steady and fairly high prices for vintage Gallet watches, sometimes reaching or even surpassing US$10,000, suggest that there is a hardcore collector base. But it’s not as big as it could be. Ask Eric Wind, one of the foremost vintage dealers and watch experts, what his favorite watches are. Don’t be surprised when he drops Gallet in the first sentence. Try that exercise with Breitling historian Fred Mandelbaum, and you will understand why we are here today.

Time for a major cleanup

Someone has to say it: previous owners wrote a lot of nonsense, untruths, and fabrications about Gallet in the last decade. Their claims were often unsubstantiated, dates fabricated, and stories unverified, but I won’t do them a favor by echoing any of them. All I’ll say is that I am glad it didn’t deter the folks at Breitling from their plans. On the contrary, they decided to clean up the brand’s heritage by removing all the nonsense and getting back to hard archive work.

What we know

The Gallet family line between the 15th and early 19th century is not easy to verify. The relevant story originates in 1826 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, where Julien Gallet established the watch manufacture Gallet & Co. The core business story, however, was written in the United States. One of the founder’s sons, Leon Gallet, may have been the driving force behind the US presence that started in 1856. He “created a large clientele in the United States, where he often traveled,” says his obituary. He eventually died while on one of his journeys to the US.

The next pivotal role in Gallet’s history was played by Leon’s sister’s son, Jules Racine, the grandson of the founder. He left for the US in 1875, and in 1890, he established Jules Racine & Co. with Charles Perret in New York. Jules Racine held the torch as the sole distributor and importer of Gallet watches in the United States for an astonishing 45 years. As confirmed by the Smithsonian, Gallet assembled two pocket stopwatches to time the Wright brothers’ flights on December 17, 1903. Just a few years later, in 1907, Gallet acquired Société d’Horlogerie Electa. Electa provided the boost needed to apply for patents and introduce novelties that brought Gallet international recognition, exhibition prizes, and success at chronometry competitions.

Business spirit in the pocket

In 1920, George Wallace replaced Charles Perret as Racine’s business partner. A 1930s article from the Jewelers’ Circular explains why vintage Gallet catalogs from that era are full of pocket watches. “Gallet imports the large proportion of timers used in this country [US],” it says, thus suggesting the size and the relevance of Gallet’s operations in the United States in those years when Americans spent $1,000,000 annually on pocket watches. I smell a true business genius here because the article further explains that the markup on a stopwatch was sometimes “higher than that of the average watch but certainly never less.” Stopwatches were big and stayed big until the late 1970s, and they often occupied a substantial portion of catalog offerings.

After the Racine years

In the 1940s, Gallet entered its golden era, although it was without Jules Racine, who died in 1934. The rise of automobiles and aviation led consumers to further favor wristwatches, which started replacing pocket watches. Shock resistance, waterproofing, and other advances made wristwatches more reliable and desired. Gallet didn’t let this opportunity slip through its fingers.

In the late 1930s, Gallet introduced some of its most iconic models, including the Multichron Regulator and the waterproof Multichron in a “Clamshell” case, marketed as “The First Timing Instrument of its kind in AMERICA!” In 1939, Gallet presented the Flying Officer, the world’s first chronograph wristwatch to display multiple time zones. A very early model of the Gallet Flying Officer was gifted to Senator Harry S. Truman, who later became president of the United States.

Excelsior Park

In the ’40s, Gallet developed a strategic partnership with movement manufacturer Jeanneret-Brehm & Cie., which became a game-changer for both parties. Although Gallet used various movement suppliers, including Venus, Valjoux, Landeron, and even Martel, Jeanneret-Brehm & Cie., which later became Excelsior Park, was by far the most important. The vast majority of watches Gallet co-designed and commissioned were from EP. Similarly, despite providing watches to other brands, most watches from EP were manufactured for Gallet.

The last Gallet family members at the steering wheel

Quartz technology did its devastating job in the US too, and Gallet was not immune. From 1975 onwards, Pierre and Bernard Gallet made several attempts to revive Gallet Switzerland. Sadly, not even multiple sub-contracting deliveries for the military could bring Gallet to its previous glory. In 1994, the Gallet family bond broke forever, and the company went into private ownership. I believe I’m not far off when I say this is the chapter in Gallet’s history that all the enthusiastic collectors want to forget. Fortunately, Breitling recognized the brand’s rich history and heritage and decided to put the resounding Gallet name back on the map. What will Gallet be like when it relaunches in 2026?

Why Breitling acquired Gallet

Currently, Breitling covers the middle and higher segments, with its average watch price around CHF 7,200. The idea for Universal Genève, which Breitling purchased in 2023, is to be functionally separate and have a dedicated design, product, and development team. UG will also have a CEO of its own and move to Geneva at a certain stage. Developing fine in-house movements won’t be cheap, so when it comes to the relaunched Universal Genève watches, I assume we’ll need to add an extra digit to their prices. Applying basic math here, Breitling was missing an entry-level portfolio, and that’s precisely the gap that Gallet is supposed to fill. “Luxury entry-point,” says the press release.

Numbers game

Looking at the numbers, in 2023, Breitling almost doubled its revenues compared to the 2021 financial year. Since Kern and his squad took the wheel in 2018, we’ve seen Longines dropping and Breitling gradually stepping up in the annual report on top watch brands in estimated revenues by LuxeConsult and Morgan Stanley. Breitling’s revenue dropped slightly last year. Its bull run from 16th place in 2018 seems to have hit a plateau in the last three years, but it retains a promising position in ninth place.

Get some popcorn

That’s precisely why relaunching UG and Gallet will be so interesting. Breitling expanded its network of boutiques in the US considerably in the last few years, so the country seems to be an important market. And don’t forget that Gallet’s “home market” used to be the US. In-house movements will be out of the question, judging by the brand’s entry-level-luxury positioning. I “wanted to” be disappointed about this thought, but then I realized that’s what Gallet always was. And I like the idea of Gallet being more affordable. As Georges Kern confirmed for us here, the new watches should be in the CHF 3,000–5,000 range.

When it comes to certain models, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the iconic Flying Officer relaunched. How close to (or far from) the original will it be? A dive watch can’t be missing from the offerings these days, and I am super curious about how Gallet will handle that. I see this as an opportunity to develop some fresh designs.

Over the last three years, Breitling has confirmed its strong position and appetite to grow further. Let’s revisit this article in three or four years and check how UG and Gallet will have boosted Breitling’s position in the top 10. I see it going higher in the ranks. How high will that be?