Gallet

watch Gallet

Gallet is a producer of mechanical quartz watches that also manufactures mechanisms for other brands.  Gallet & Co was founded by Julien Gallet in La Chaux-de-Fonds.  His son, Leon L. Gallet created several brands of Swiss and American watches.

Leon L. Gallet was the president of the Friends of the Arts Society and he was friends with personalities such as Enerst Francillon from Longines, Constant Girard Perregauz and Louis and Jules Courvoisier.  They all joined forces in 1876 and created the Intercantonal Society for the Jura Industries. The goal of the society was to support and promote the distribution system of the Swiss watches, as back then the Swiss watch industry was composed of a few small workshops that offered luxury goods to the local market.

Francillon and Gallet warned this Intercantonal Society about the ever increasing number of watches being produces by the United States after the Civil War and their effect on the Swiss watch industry, but their warnings were ignored.

In May of that same year, the International Exhibition in Philadelphia helped the others finally realize the magnitude of the manufacturing force behind American watches.  Gallet had taken what he considered were the necessary precautions and established two stores in the US, in Chicago and in New York; this helped him find a place for Swiss watches in the US.

Gallet passed away in 1899, but his timely awareness of the need to expand his market left La Chaux-de-Fonds with a considerable amount of capital.  This capital was used to create the International Watchmaking Museum.

The success of the brand continued and in 1916, it became the number one supplier of chronographs. Their chronographs were used in World War II by British troops and by the armies of Canada., Great Britain, and the United States.

Currently the watches created by Gallet are considered vintage watches.  The brand is highly ranked and its watches are collection pieces.

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