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The first Gallet to become a citizen of Geneva, was Humbertus Gallet, from Bourg-en-Bresse, France. He has been registered in the register of citizens as a citizen of the city of Geneva on April 16, 1466, that means 540 years ago or about 25 years before America was discovered. Geneva became part of Switzerland in 1815 or 349 years later. His profession was not mentioned clearly, but it seems, that it had to do with elaborating metal. On the other hand, more Gallets from the goldsmith/watchmaker dynasty from Bourg-en-Bresse, settled in Geneva in 1685 and can therefore look back more than 320 years. They belonged to a "second wave of emigrants" from the French Ain department.
The Gallets, citizens of Geneva since 1466, remained always in close contact with their relatives in Bourg-en-Bresse, which is 70 km away. By horse carriage the trip took 2 days! In 1685, more Gallets were forced to emigrate to Geneva, as the French King Louis XIV abolished the tolerance agreement of Nantes, which guaranteed catholics and protestants to live together in peace. For this reason, additional members of the family from Bourg-en-Bresse joined their relatives in Geneva, who helped them to get settled there in 1685 as well. It is proofen that they were goldsmiths and watchmakers.
The marriage contract of Master Goldsmith Pierre Gallet in Geneva in 1742.
The descendants maintained their family tradition, which is also being proofen by a marriage contract in Geneva in 1742. The document shows that Pierre Gallet (1719-1779) was a master goldsmith when he got married to his bride, Miss Jeanne Renée de Rabours. In this document the father of Pierre, Phillippe Gallet, who emigrated to Geneva, was also mentioned as being a "maître orfèvre" (master goldsmith) and watchmaker.
At the time it went without saying in this profession, that the son learned his job from his father and later on continued by taking over his manufacturing facility. The goldsmiths from Geneva manufactured gold cases for pocket watches for men and necklace watches for women. Generally they worked together with the manufacturers of watch movements. At the time, each master was independent. He employed, at the most, a few specialists and apprentices. The printing of the brand name on the face of the watch was not known yet. Whenever the master signed his work, he did so on the top plate of the movement. In many cases, the son of a goldsmith learned at the time in addition the more profitable profession of watchmaker. This was also the case with the son of Pierre Gallet, Jacques born in 1744. It is documented that he was a goldsmith, as well as a watchmaker.
The mother of Jacques Gallet, Jeanne Renée de Rabours, was a noble woman, a descendant of a very distinguished family from Geneva. Her ancestors can be traced back in Geneva to the year 1514, the year of birth of her great-great-great-grandfather, noble Michel Roset, distinguished of Châteauvieux (1534-1613). He was the first mayor of the city of Geneva. His descendants were continuously high ranking government officials or consultants of the government.
From the Republic "Lémanique" (Geneva) to the Jura mountains in the Neuchâtel area
The son of Jacques Gallet, Jean-Louis (1774-1809), the grandson of Pierre Gallet and Jeanne Renée, became French citizens "in the year 12 of the French Republic" (1804). After Napoleon annexed Geneva and named it the "Lémanique Republic", Jean-Louis continued his fathers jewelry and watches business. He died at the age of 35. His son Julien Gallet (1806-1849) moved in 1826, at the age of 20 to La Chaux-de-Fonds, which at the time was the striving metropolis for pocket watches. Already his father had purchased watch movements from the Jura mountain area of Neuchâtel, in order to mount them into the watch cases he manufactured. This resulted in frequent time consuming trips, in order to deliver the orders personally.
For a young, ambitious man, who wanted to break out of the tightly regulated luxury watches trade, to constitute his own company in an area with great growth potential, La Chaux-de-Fonds was the right place. However, the harsh climate at 1000 m above sea level of this watches metropolis did not agree with his health. He died at the age of 43. Fortunately enough, his widow Louise was very competent and continued the business until she could hand it over to her two sons, Léon and Lucien.
The patriarch Léon Gallet
Léon L. Gallet (1832-1899), became the patriarch figure of the rapidly growing company. The premises on Rue du Parc became too small very rapidly. The urgently needed expansion was made possible by acquiring the company Grumbach & Co., which produced watches of the brand name "Electa". Gallet & Co. was renamed Electa Gallet Watch Manufactory.
Léon L. Gallet played an important role in the social live in La Chaux-de-Fonds. He founded together with "Longines" in St. Imier, the "Intercantonal company for Industrial Development of the Jura area". Léon L. Gallet was marketing his products in Europe, with an especial emphasis in England.
Activities in the US
Léon L. Gallet was also very farsighted to realize the huge potential of the American market. Therefore, his brother Lucien Gallet (1834-1879) in 1864 opened up an office in Chicago. It became clear very rapidly however, that New York was not to be neglected. For this reason they opened an office there as well, initially on Maiden Lane, soon a better location was found on 20 West 47th Street.
Gallets best customer and as from 1877 exclusive distributor in the US, was the whole sale dealer Jules Racine, a cousin of the Gallets. He distributed watches with the Gallet brand, as well as with his own brand names (Racine since 1870), Jules Racine, Lady Racine, Racine Royale, in addition, specifically American brand names like "Bridgeport", "Burlington", "Chancellor", "Commodore", "Continental", "Eureka", "Mars", "National Park", "Security", "Select", "Solar", "Success", "The Governor" and others. The style of the cases, the bands, the face, the hands, were tuned to the American taste, the movements however, were always from La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Jules Racine remained the distributor for Gallet and Racine watches in the US until the 1990ies, when Racine was taken over by Gallet, Switzerland.
After the death of his brother Lucien, Léon Gallet lived partially in New York, in order to work further on the build-up of the national distribution network. Even after having handed over the management of the parent company in 1883 to his sons Julien (1862-1934) and Georges (1865-1946), he continued to travel to the US, to attend his customers. His trip to America in 1899 was the last one, as he died unexpectedly in Chicago.
He left his home town La Chaux-de-Fonds a donation of Swiss Francs 43'000.-- (representing today more than Swiss Francs 1'000'000.--, $ 740'000.--), of which Swiss Francs 25'000,-- were earmarked to help finance a new museum for watches. At the time Gallet sold watches for more than Swiss Francs 5 million, or in excess of one hundred thousand watches annually. The son of Léon Gallet, Georges continued the philanthropic tradition. He donated to the International Museum of Watches in La Chaux-de-Fonds, of which he was the honorary Director for 20 years, the company's collection of some 100 old Gallet watches. It contained a great number of valuable pocket chronographs, many with gold cases, as well as the very first wrist watch for men.
The wife of Georges Gallet, Berthe (1868-1936), born as Courvoisier, was a niece of Fritz Courvoisier, a celebrated hero for freedom of the Canton of Neuchâtel. He was one of the leaders of the revolution of 1848, during which Prussia had to give up Neuchâtel permanently. Since 1707, Neuchâtel was subject to an alliance with Prussia, which lasted "officially" until 1857. The Principality of Neuchâtel joined the Swiss Confederation formally in 1814 as 21st canton.
Activities in Asia
After the successful marketing of Gallet watches in America, it became clear, that the Asian markets had to be developed as well. Julien Gallet, started in 1912 to export watches to India, Burma, China and Japan. In order to attend his distributors, he traveled regularely via Bombay, Singapore, Shanghai to Japan. Japan developed to become one of the most important markets. The main clients were Hattori (today Seiko), Kingoro Tzana, Tamaya & Co., Hitsukoshi and Kobayashi. Thanks to this almost 100 years old tradition, Gallet is one of the well known brand names of Swiss watches in Japan. Usually Léon Gallet, son of Georges Gallet, traveled from Tokyo to San Francisco and finalized his business in New York, visiting Racine. At the time, such a trip around the world lasted about 9 months!
Chronographs became a speciality of Gallet
An important focus in the production of Gallet watches was on complications. Especially the chronographs and the stop watches were specialities which were improved further all the time with proper as well as acquired innovations. Gallet received for example from Alfred Lugrin in L'Orient (Vallée de Joux) a licence on his Swiss patent no. 359, which protected the idea of an improved protection of the mechanism of chronographs. It was that one Mr. Lugrin, which came to the valley as a cow boy, auto educated himself in watch making and later on established the Lemania factory (today Nouvelle Lemania, belonging to the Swatch Group).
Gallet always aimed at the highest quality. It went without saying that pallets of escapements and temperature compensated balance-springs with Breguet-Regulation were always used. Gallet watches obtained several distinctions and medals, for example on the Swiss exhibition in 1896 and the World exhibition in Lüttich in 1905. On the Swiss exhibition in 1914, Gallet obtained the "main price", for chronometers and from the Cantonal Observatory Neuchâtel regularely excellent results, in 1917 the 1st price.
Gallet - Pioneer in Wrist Watches
In 1895, Gallet developed the Worlds First Wrist Watches for ladies and for men.
As from 1895 until his death in 1899, Léon Gallet tried to launch wrist watches mainly on the American market. Initial results were however not very encouraging. Racine returned a large part of a first shipment, as these watches could not be sold! Only some 20 years later, other Swiss watch manufacturers started to take up the idea too and added "the new toys", wrist watches to their collections as well.
In 1916, Gallet made the Worlds First True Wrist Chronograph for the British Army.
After long and very rigid evaluation procedures, Gallet was chosen to supply watches (the worlds first true wrist chronographs) to the British Army in 1916. As can be seen, this chronograph has been developed and refined technically to a true masterpiece, a transitional timepiece, with similarities to a pocket watch still evident. Though the size has been reduced for wearing it on the wrist, this horological milestone retains the three piece case, porcelain enamel dial and center button crown of its larger predecessor.
The introduction of wrist watches into the civil markets was very difficult. Orders from armies were more and more non existent and the prices at retail level were so low, that it was difficult to make any profit, despite good volume in sales. The company under the management of Julien and Georges Gallet, the sons of the patriarch Léon, was forced in 1924 to sell the company "Electa" as well as some real estate, in order to pay suppliers and to go on. At this time, even third party assembly work was executed. Thanks to the excellent know-how in chronographs and stop watches, the company was able to make it, despite the worldwide economic crisis after the stock market crash of 1929. During the thirties, the 2nd World War became more and more apparent. Gallet produced again more and more watches for armies, clocks for boats with 8 day movements and stop watches for Great Britain, Canada and the USA. At the start of World War II production reached some 100'000 watches p.a. again.
Chronographs made with steel cases for pilots and sport fans were the speciality well before WW II. Special models for doctors to measure the puls of patients were also made. These watches where made with conventional two pushers, as well as with one pusher only at 4h for start, stop and reset, or as can be seen on the picture below...
The same movement with 15 rubies can be encountered in military versions, with white hands and black face, which is covered almost up to the center with tachy- and telemeter scales.
Fascination aviation
Birth of a legend: Model "Flying Officer" For the pilots of the US Air Force, Gallet developed a special chronograph, "Flying Officer" which became the leading model very quickly. The US Air Force ordered the model in big numbers before, during and after the Second World War. As from 1940, Switzerland was totally surrounded by the German army, which was at war against the US. It was rather surprising that under such circumstances the US business remained in tact. For each shipment, a special permit had to be obtained from the German government, which had to be requested from the German embassy in Berne, Switzerland.
These permits were always granted, as watches were not considered to be strategic material, some times however with delays of several months. The watches for the US were shipped initially by train to Marseilles, France. Later Lisbon, Portugal, became the only neutral port in Europe, from where goods were shipped under Spanish flag to Cuba, then to Miami. It was never known, when shipments would arrive!
After WW II and the death of his father, Léon Gallet (1899-1975) took over the management of the company. He had to change the "military look" only slightly, in order to convert his chronographs into trendy sports chronographs and watches for the civil aviation. The Valjoux Caliber 72 for 3 counter chronographs or Venus 188 movements were used, as well as the 175 for 2 counter models. Using the Valjoux Caliber 72C, an especially nice chronograph with hands calendar, as well as a window to show the day of the week and the month of the year, was manufactured. Collectors are paying today high prices for such models.
Even after the war, the traditional military watch was very successful. The "Flying Officer" model with two counters remained a classical watch in the fifties and sixties, using Landeron movements 148 and 149, as well as Venus Caliber 150. The well known world-time-model was equiped with a bezel with engraved indication of hours, while the periphery of the face shows 24 names of main cities around the world. The development continued into various directions. The pilots chronograph "Exel-O-Graph" of 1965 with turning bezel, with an integrated slide rule to make navigational calculations, was particularly refined.
Military specifications as a challenge
Gallet produced watches for the military very successfully, even though, specifications to be met were very though. The armies of this world asked for very robust watches, which were strictly functional, indestructible and offered excellent readability. This meant a steel case, a black face with white indices and big white hands; luminous-tritium was mostly required. These instruments were subjected to a minimum of 15 tough tests (as for example shocks, positive and negative acceleration, magnetic fields, extreme temperatures, rapid changes of temperatures, compressed air, water pressure, etc.)
The last big military order came from the US army in 1986, when 30'000 watches for the soldiers in operation "desert storm" were ordered. Once the prototypes were approved, the different manufacturers were exposed to intense competition. Therefore in the nineties prices became inadequate. On top the numbers ordered dropped at the end of the cold war more and more. The most important products were still chronographs, stop watches and repetition watches, as well as divers watches, which are based on models produced at the time for the British Admiralty.
In the private sector, Gallet survived the seventies with the so called "quartz crisis" rather well. Movements based on the new micro-electrical technology were manufactured in big series in Switzerland at reasonable prices. Despite of this situation, Gallet remained focused on mechanical movements. The tradition of very careful assembling, ensured at all times the perfect functioning of the Gallet watches.
During the seventies, the devaluation of the US$ caused the biggest problems in the history of the company. After the death of Léon Gallet in 1975, his sons Pierre born 1926 and Bernard born 1930 took over the management of the company.
Swiss watches became very expensive in the USA and sales went down. As a consequence of this situation, Racine became problems and it was finally taken over by Gallet, including a large stock of chronographs. By the end of the eighties, these became very handy, as the market for these time pieces not only recuperated, but started to boom again. The market snapped up each and every piece.
After Pierre Gallet retired from the company in 1990 for health reasons, Bernard Gallet was looking for new partners. An initial partnership with an investors group in 1992 did not bring the envisaged results. Therefore in 1996, the factory was sold to B. Neresheimer Ltd., founded in Zollikon-Zurich in 1929 by August Neresheimer from Munich. This company was active in the wholesale trade of luxury goods for well over 60 years.
The factory was moved from La Chaux-de-Fonds to Grandson in the canton auf Vaud or about 1 hour from Geneva. In 2002 the name of the company was changed to Gallet Group Inc., in order to reflect the fact that the brands Racine, Galco and Fan Watch belong to the Group as well. Since the middle of 2004, all the activities are concentrated near Zurich.
Bernard Gallet the great grandson of the family patriarch Léon Gallet remains connected to the company in an advisory capacity.dd your text.
PIONEER IN PROFESSIONAL TIMEKEEPING
