Gallet introduced the Flying Officer in 1939, a chronograph with a world-time indicator, rotating bezel, and waterproof case—all novel for the time.
The cities on the world timer might seem unusual—small towns like Djask and Dakar alongside familiar metropolises like New York or London.
In those early days of intercontinental flight, you couldn’t just fly directly from one far-flung destination to another. Pilots had to hopscotch through sometimes obscure outposts, making multiple refueling stops to get across the world. For example, KLM, Air France, and Britain’s Imperial Airways all had routes connecting Europe to Asia running through Djask, a small port town on the Gulf of Oman.
This is the origin of the Gallet Flying Officer, with its indicators dictated by specific, real-world practicality.
Today, Gallet officially relaunches under Breitling’s House of Brands, after its acquisition by Breitling and Partners Group was first reported in February 2025. It’s introducing four collections, but calls the Flying Officer the “blueprint” for its relaunch.
The new Flying Officer has been upsized to 40mm (15mm thick), and Gallet says:
“The rotating bezel has been entirely reconsidered around 24 contemporary destinations, pairing major international gateways with more remote points of exploration to reflect how travel has evolved.”
That original specificity is long gone—instead, the world timer has become a moodboard for “wanderlust.”
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Wanderlust
Gallet’s relaunch is all about wanderlust. From its press release:
“Wanderlust is more than the urge to travel. It’s the instinct to break free from the ordinary, leave the noise behind, and chase what lies beyond.”
Gallet is positioned as a sibling brand of Breitling, with the four new collections to be sold via “select Breitling boutiques now featuring dedicated safari-inspired Gallet corners, inviting visitors into the brand’s world of escape, exploration, and adventure.”
The German wanderlust is a strong desire or impulse to travel. 160 million posts on Instagram have the hashtag #wanderlust, many of those from the late Obama years when millennials like me were Eat-Pray-Loving our way across Spain or Thailand or Colombia or whatever “affordable” destination an entry-level gig at Accenture could bankroll.1
It’s a strange place for Gallet to end up, since its actual history is anything but vague.
Founded in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1826, Gallet & Co. became known for its chronographs with very specific use cases: the Navigator for navigating; Yachting for yachters; Decimal for engineers and scientists; Filmeter for Hollywood; Medigraph for doctors; even basketball and football timers.
The Wright Brothers used a stopwatch known as The Sun, manufactured by Gallet, to time their first flights at Kitty Hawk in 1903. “The Sun” was a New York importer’s trademark, and the design was a horse timer Gallet had been selling since the 1890s.
Gallet’s distribution was focused in the United States, likely thanks to the efforts of Leon Gallet and Jules Racine. As wristwatches began to replace pocket watches in the 1930s, Gallet took advantage.
In 1938, it introduced the MultiChron Clamshell (my favorite Gallet), which used a primitive waterproof case design with four screws in the caseback to seal it against moisture. A year later came the Flying Officer. Earlier world timers from fancy brands like Patek Philippe used Louis Cottier’s intricate system. By contrast, the Flying Officer was practical and affordable, a tool for actual use by pilots and navigators.
An early Flying Officer was given to Harry S. Truman, who later became President of the United States and dropped two atomic bombs.
Meanwhile, Gallet entered its golden age with the rest of the Swiss industry, producing an endless variety of chronographs for the world’s growing middle class that enjoyed driving, yachting, flying, and other leisurely endeavors.
Gallet eventually became a victim of the Quartz and Currency Crisis, with the brand falling out of the Gallet family by 1994, going into private ownership and remaining largely dormant until its 2025 acquisition by private equity firm Partners Group and Breitling.
Today, Gallet enthusiasm is small compared to even Universal Genève, with a center of gravity in the U.S. given the historical link.
The new Gallet watches are “Manufactured by Breitling,” benefiting from Breitling’s “after-sales service and global distribution.”
This does not include Breitling movements, except for the 200th anniversary Gallet Classics (more below). Instead, Gallet relies on Sellita: the core chronographs are based on the Sellita SW510, while the Flying Officer Automatic is based on the SW200.
This may be a point of contention for some, but it’s historically honest. Vintage Gallet chronographs used outsourced calibers from Landeron, Venus, Valjoux, and, famously, Excelsior Park. Here’s the pricing:
Flying Officer Automatic: $2,900 (strap) / $3,100 (bracelet)
Flying Officer Chronograph, Multichron Pilot & Sport: $4,400 (strap) / $4,600 (bracelet)
Gallet Classics (Yachting, 45, Silverlight): $6,700 USD (strap only)
It’s a competitive segment, and growth is slow. The chronograph prices put Gallet at the top band of Sellita users—smaller brands like Baltic, Hanhart, Christopher Ward, and Furlan Marri offer cheaper SW510 alternatives. Gallet comes in slightly below Norqain, which may be the best comp. Meanwhile, Longines offers a range of COSC-certified chronographs below $4,000.
For another couple grand, you can graduate to a Tudor Black Bay Chrono, which uses a Breitling-descended caliber, while “Breitling-made” Gallet runs a Sellita.
The problem: Gallet is a niche brand, but has chosen the broadest possible marketing and design codes, which means it’s taking on every competitor in the most crowded segment of the market.
Perhaps Gallet can become a true competitor to Longines, or more accessible than Tudor and its steady march upmarket. But it’s not there with this launch collection.
Let’s get specific
All those old Gallet chronographs answered a very specific question for doctors, pilots, engineers, or just rich lawyers with a boat.
But wanderlust isn’t a specific question—it’s a feeling, and feelings don’t lend themselves to precise answers. Let’s start by looking at the core collections:
(1) The Flying Officer
I’ve seen the Flying Officer in person. It’s a chunky: 40x15mm (47.5mm lug-to-lug), though I suppose not overly imposing for someone with larger wrists.
It’s offered with a black or trendy Tiffany-adjacent blue dial with that “reconsidered” world timer around the periphery. The simple design takes after second-gen vintage Flying Officers from the 60s, with no tachymeter or telemeter scales.
The bezel is highly polished, making it much shinier than the old Flying Officers. A pilot friend of mine wore a Flying Officer sample in the weeks leading up to this release, so I asked for his impressions. He told me:
“From a practical perspective, it’s too shiny, it leans too far away from the tool watch aesthetic.”
However, he called it a sharp watch, saying he’s glad Breitling has brought a new pilot’s watch to the market. He’ll have a full video with his thoughts on his YouTube, PilotWatchGouge.2
The Flying Officer is big, brash, and thick—closer to a 2006 sensibility of what a luxury watch should be than 2026. Instagrammable destinations like Dubai, Nairobi, and even Angkor Wat dot the dial, moving from #wanderlust to the world timer.
The Flying Officer might not be for me, the limp-wristed enthusiast, or my pilot friend, but Breitling is betting that the fat middle of consumers might be intrigued enough to take a safari to the corner of their local Breitling boutique.
(2) Flying Officer Automatic
There’s also a time-and-date Flying Officer Automatic, which doesn’t have a direct ancestor. Historically, Gallet mostly made chronographs, so I get the need to reinterpret its back catalog into a modern three-hander. But simply removing the chronograph shows a relative lack of imagination.
Gallet says the orange dial is “inspired by the patina of an aged Flying Officer,” and serves as the color palette of the entire brand relaunch.
Patina, repackaged as a Pantone.
Below the paywall: the financial reality behind the relaunch, the new Classics I actually like, and what Gallet could’ve been.
