News · Gallet

Gallet returns after 200 years with four collections

Breitling will manufacture, distribute and service the revived brand's travel and chronograph ranges.

Hen & Mills Editorial · 3 min read · 4 September 2026

Gallet returned on 3 September 2026, exactly 200 years after its founding in La Chaux-de-Fonds. The revived company launches with four collections made inside Breitling's manufacturing and service network: Flying Officer, Multichron Pilot, Multichron Sport and Gallet Classics. This is a full commercial relaunch, not a single commemorative watch using a dormant name.

Breitling provides technical expertise, production, after-sales service and global distribution, while Gallet sits beside Breitling and Universal Genève in the wider House of Brands. Selected Breitling boutiques will carry dedicated Gallet areas. That infrastructure gives the relaunch a physical retail footprint and service plan from day one, two things that heritage revivals often have to build after the watches appear.

Breitling gives the old name a factory

Gallet's history is unusually useful to a modern tool-watch line. The company made chronographs associated with aviation, racing and sailing, including the Flying Officer world-time chronograph introduced in 1939. Rather than copy one vintage reference across the whole catalogue, the new range divides those jobs between travel, exploration, motorsport and historical tribute watches.

Every new Gallet is manufactured through Breitling's infrastructure. The arrangement does not mean the watches carry Breitling names on their dials, but it does connect them to established technical expertise, quality standards, after-sales service and distribution. Managing director Erwan Rossignol leads Gallet, while Georges Kern names it as part of a House of Brands with Breitling and Universal Genève.

Within that group, Gallet is presented as a separate brand with its own managing director, archive references and product families. Its launch draws directly on the company's travel and tool-watch history, giving the revived name a clear subject rather than borrowing the identity of its siblings.

Four collections cover three kinds of travel

The Flying Officer is the historical anchor. Its rotating bezel carries 24 contemporary destinations, updating the city ring that helped early long-distance travellers read another zone. The collection includes a 40mm chronograph and a simpler automatic model. The black chronograph pictured here combines a busy city scale with high-contrast white numerals and restrained orange accents.

Multichron Pilot takes the exploration role, using a robust textured dial and a second-time-zone display for changing conditions. Multichron Sport turns towards road and off-road timing. Its 41mm case contains the Gallet 23 automatic chronograph calibre, based on the Sellita SW510, with an approximate 65-hour reserve. The Sport comes in dark blue with black registers or black with white registers, plus bright orange chronograph hands and a tachymeter scale.

Gallet Classics is the smaller, more explicitly historical branch. Three hand-wound chronographs mark the bicentenary, each drawing on a known archive reference. They use Breitling's manufacture B09 calibre, measure 38mm and provide about 70 hours of reserve. Their special-edition status separates them from the continuing core collections.

Across the regular range, leather, rubber, field and fabric straps use quick-release fittings. Steel bracelets use the same tool-free system and add a micro-adjustment. A shared lug width lets straps move between compatible models, turning the accessory range into a practical part of the launch rather than a colour exercise.

A revival built for regular retail

Gallet is also presenting itself through a group of photographers, filmmakers, conservationists and professional adventurers whose field reports began in July. The theme is direct and commercially legible: watches for travel beyond airports and hotels. The orange-and-green palette comes from the aged tones of an early Flying Officer, giving the new identity a visual link to the archive without using faux ageing on every model.

The strongest part of this return is its breadth. A lone anniversary chronograph could have tested demand, but it would have left unanswered questions about service, distribution and what Gallet intends to make next. Four collections, boutique space and a clear manufacturing agreement instead establish the shape of an operating watch company.

There is still a lot to prove. A historic name does not guarantee that buyers will accept a new version of it, and Gallet must explain why its watches deserve space beside established brands using similar movements. The answer begins with designs that do specific jobs and with prices that must make sense for those specifications.

For now, the 200th anniversary provides more than a date for a caseback. It gives Gallet a reason to reconnect the Flying Officer and Multichron names, while Breitling supplies the less romantic work of making, distributing and servicing the watches. That division of labour is a credible foundation for a relaunch that intends to last beyond its birthday year. Retail execution now becomes the test.