Gallet Pocket Watch S Professional Use Line

Georges Gallet served as director of the museum for the next twenty years and the company name was changed back to Gallet Cie (Gallet Co.).

Instead, Gallets highly developed timing instruments were commissioned for specific applications when lesser watches couldnt meet the requirements.

In 1685, Due to the abolishment by French King Louis XIV of the tolerance agreement of Nantes, additional members of the Bourg en-Bresse Gallet family, whose professions are documented as goldsmiths and watchmakers, joined their relatives in Geneva to live and practice their trade.

The marriage contract records show Pierre Gallets profession as a master goldsmith.

He managed his fathers jewelry and watch making company until his premature death in 1809 at age of 35.

At this time, the company was officially registered as Gallet Cie (Gallet Company).

In 1848, after the death of Julien Gallet at the age of 43, his widow Louise, and sons Leon Lucien took the charge of the company.

In 1855 he expanded the business by acquiring Grumbach Co., a company used to produce watches with the brand name Electa.

Gallet Cie. is renamed Electa Gallet Cie.

In 1864, Lon Gallets brother Lucien Gallet established the companys first US location in Chicago, with a New York City office following soon after.

Together with Jules Racine, a cousin of the Gallet brothers living in the US, the company expanded its distribution to the American market.

Benefiting from the unified strength of combined Swiss,manufacturing resources, the group was able to maintain its sales dominance in Europe.

Marketing for the syndicate was primarily European based with an emphasis on sales to England.

Gallet Pocket Watch S Professional Use Line

In 1882, a strategic partnership was formed with Jules Jeanneret Fils, to supply mechanisms for Gallets professional use line of hand-held timers and pocket chronographs.

The JG initials were added to the Gallet Lyre Mark and the company name was temporarily changed to Julien Gallet Cie to reflect the older sons control of the business.

Georges Gallet (18651946), Lons younger son, assisted his brother with the management of the company while working part-time at Courvoisier Frres.

Berthe Courvoisier and her brother mile, together with Georges Gallet and his sister Henriette, continued to manage the Courvoisier Frres watch company.

Georges Gallet assumed the role as co-director of the company.

However, these first wristwatches were immediately rejected due to public perception as being too unusual for women and too feminine for men.

All unsold examples were soon returned to Switzerland for dis-assembly.

In spite of initial resistance to this groundbreaking innovation, wristwatches were issued during WWI as a more useful way for soldiers to tell time in combat situations.

As a result, this new concept gained acceptance and the other watch companies also started marketing wrist watches.

Eaton Department Store) for railway use.In the same year Gallet also won a silver medal at the Swiss National Exhibition in Geneva.

To assist the museum in building its initial collection of timepieces, Georges Gallet donated over 100 highly complex and valuable Gallet, Electa, and Courvoisier watches.

Gallet Pocket Watch Serial Numbers