GALLET & CO.

Gallet is a historic Swiss manufacturer of

high quality watches for professional,
military, sports, racing and aviation use.
Gallet is the oldest watch company in the
world with a history dating back to
Humbert Halle, a watchmaker who
settled in Geneva in 1466. The name
Gallet & Company was officially
registered by Julien Galle in 1826, moving
the family business from Geneva to La
Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.
The Gallet company is best known during
the 20th century to the present day for its
line of watches, the MultiChron
chronograph. Produced primarily for
military, industrial, auto racing and other
professional uses, Gallet MultiChron
watches often include a number of cutting
edge innovations in the field of
timekeeping.
The most famous Gallet watch was the
Flight Officer. Commissioned by Senator
Harry S. Truman in 1939 for the United
States Air Force pilots, the flying officer
had a rotating 12-hour bezel and the
names of the 23 largest cities in the world
engraved on the periphery of the dial.
These functions made it possible to
calculate the changes in time when the
pilot flew through the lines of longitude.
In addition to being the first time zone
wristwatch based on the 12-hour system,
the Flight Officer was the first wristwatch
with a rotating bezel and one of the
world's first wrist chronographs housed in
a waterproof case. During his tenure as
the 33rd president, Truman wore a flying
officer, Gallet.
The modern Gallet Company is one of a
small group of independent Swiss watch
brands that still have their own
production facilities. Gallet has recently
expanded its marketing focus to reach a
wider audience of civilian consumers
with its high-end professional watches,
but continues to privately produce
components and modules for a number of
other companies in the luxury watch
industry.