Gallet Is Back – Four New Collections Launch Simultaneously At Geneva Watch Days

If there’s any sign that Geneva Watch Days is becoming a major annual event set to rival even the might Watches & Wonders in importance, it might be this: Gallet, the third of the companies in the House of Brands, which also includes Breitling and Universal Genève, has just made its long-anticipated debut, following on the launch of a digital teaser platform in June.

The brand takes “wanderlust” as its theme, and has a total of four collections: Flying Officer, Multichron Pilot, Multichron Sport, and Gallet Classics. While the new collections draw very much on Gallet’s reputation, built over the course of the 20th century, as a maker of hyperspecific tool chronographs designed for particular use case scenarios, there are also time only watches in the collection as well. The challenge is a big one: create a brand which both draws on and honors the vintage collector fan base which has built up around Gallet over the last couple of decades, while at the same time, offering a lineup diverse enough and inclusive enough to form the commercial base for the midrange position taken up in the group by Breitling, and the high end position taken by Universal Genève.

Gallet was originally founded in 1826 and enjoyed considerable success as a maker of timing instruments for many decades, but went through the diminishment of market share and reduction in interest that affected so many legacy brands in the 1970s. The Gallet family lost control of the brand in 1994, and it was finally acquired by Partners Group and Breitling in 2025 – and I think it’s fair to say that the relaunch has been awaited with great anticipation and a certain amount of anxiety ever since. Here’s what went live today.

The Flying Officer Collection

The original Flying Officer watches were launched in 1939, and are the product of an era that saw the rise of civil aviation in the wake of its arising from military aviation post-World War I. The watch was an early attempt at, essentially, a world-timer, with a 12 hour rotating bezel, and the cities chosen for the original Flying Officer watches were both major cities, and more obscure destinations, like Djask, a refueling stop on the Gulf of Oman for carriers headed to destinations in Asia (the city today is known as Jask; it’s in southern Iran on the Strait of Hormuz). The  original Flying Officer was famously worn by President Harry Truman.

There are both chronograph and time-only automatic models, with light blue and black dials for the chronographs, and orange or dark blue dials for the time-only watches. Movements are the Sellita SW510/Gallet 23 for the chronos, and the Sellita SW200 for the time only watches.

The Flying Officer is being launched in stainless steel, in a 40mm case; the chronograph is 15.02mm thick and the automatic is a bit thinner, at 10.67mm. Water resistance is 100 meters. Prices are $4,400 on a strap or $4,600 on a bracelet for the chrono; $2900 and $3100 for the time-and-date automatic.

The Multichron Pilot Collection

The Multichron Pilot was originally a chronograph launched in the late 1960s, with a 12 hour bezel. The new Multichron Pilot Collection is chronograph-only, with the 12 hour bezel and telemeter scale carried over from the original vintage models.

The new Multichron Pilot chronographs come in 42mm x 15.25mm stainless steel cases; water resistance is 100 meters, and prices are $4,400 on a strap, and $4600 on a bracelet. As with the Flying Officer watches, the movement is the SW510/Gallet 23.

The Multichron Sport Collection

The Multichron Sport Collection is, according to Gallet, based on vintage models like the Multichron 12 Scientific, and is being positioned as the most generally versatile of the launch collection chronographs. The case is stainless steel, 41mm x 13.87mm, and water resistance is the 100 meters found across all the new Gallet watches.

You could describe these as more motorsports oriented, thanks to the tachymeter scale, although it never hurts to remember that the tachymeter scale is also a general units per hour scale as well. Still, it’s probably most strongly associated with driving as the most often cited use for it, is for measuring average speed over distance. The Multichron Sport watches are being launched in 41mm x 13.87mm cases, with 100 meter water resistance, and the SW150/Gallet 23 caliber, and there are two launch dials: dark blue with black subdials, and black with white subdials. Gallet has given both watches orange chron0graph hands, which does add to the mid-century auto dash instrument vibe. You’ll note also that the Sport watches have square chrono pushers, unlike the pump pushers on the Flying Officer and Pilot watches.

Prices are $4,400 on a strap, and $4,600 on a bracelet.

The Gallet Classics Collection

The Classics watches are 200th anniversary specific, and while they’re not copy-paste reproductions of the models that inspired them, the vintage design cues definitely establish the relationship. Unlike the other watches, the classics are powered by the hand-wound Breitling caliber Bo9, which is chronometer certified by the COSC, and is column wheel controlled, vertical clutch chronograph movement with a 70 hour power reserve, and they’re all offered only on straps. All cases are 38mm x 12.5mm, with display backs, and water resistance is 100 meters.

The Tribute to Yachting Big Eye is a regatta timer, based on a model from the 1960s, and it has a large countdown subdial designed to time the critical interval at the start of a yacht race during which captains attempt to get as close to the line without going over it, before the starting gun goes off.

The Tribute to Multichron 45 has quite a lot of vintage chronograph appeal – the modern caliber positions the subdials nicely in the 38mm case, and there are both telemeter and tachymeter scales.

Finally, there’s the Tribute to Silverlight.

This one’s got a design based on the vintage Multichron Navigator, which was a rather cool watch which had a small red hand on the same axis as the hour and minute hands, which could be used to show true geographic north if the owner aligned the hour hand with the direction of the Sun – a clever variation on the compass watch theme. The Tribute to Silverlight takes the clean, minimalist layout of the Navigator as its design inspiration, with long, thin baton hands and clean sans-serif numerals.

The Classics are all slightly more expensive than the Gallet 23 caliber-based watches in the other collections, as you’d expect from the movement upgrade; all three are $6,700.

Along with the watches, Gallet is also launching a quick change strap system, with quite a few options: field, leather, rubber, and fabric straps in a variety of colors.

Well, that’s a lot to digest, especially seen in the context of vintage 20th century Gallet production. Certainly there’s a lot of variety and through the collections, you can see which ones are designed to draw more specifically on vintage inspiration, design cues, and general personality. Personally, I was drawn right away to the Tribute to Yachting, which is a  little hilarious since I do not own a yacht, nor am I ever likely to (although not all regattas involve multimillion dollar vintage wooden hulled racing yachts; those are just the most photogenic ones). The new Gallet watches hope that the offering of some of the idiosyncratic elements of the vintage models, which made them so appealing to collectors, combined with updated movements and materials and a bit more versatility, will make Gallet an attractive choice for those looking for something at an attractive price with a bit of personality and character – certainly, the brand’s off to a strong start.

Find out more about the new collections at Gallet.com.