Gallet Flying Officer 40 Year Review (long)

[Mort]

In the last several years I have bought some really nice watches which I feel very fortunate to be able to do. I started thinking about my watch collecting and its roots. We all have our great first Rolex storys and I have read many great first great watch storys here and on other forums, so I have descided to post mine and give a review. Plus it falls in place being Fathers Day this weekend. Before I review it, I need to tell my story behind the watch.

This is the watch that started my whole love affair with timepieces. This is a early 60's Gallet Flying Officer Chronograph.

When I was a kid in the mid 1960's my Father was a weekend pilot and and descided to buy a "pilots watch". We had a cousin in the Jewelry business so my father went to him to buy this watch.

From the moment he brought the watch home, I was drawn to it. My father showed me how the bezel worked so you could tell time in all the different citys around the world. He also let me play with the chrono feature. I cant count the times Dad would hand me the watch to let me play around with it over the years. From that point on I was going to be into watches.

When I was 15 and about to go off to boarding school my Dad gave me the Gallet. It was the 70's and everyone was wearing digital watches, or smaller dress watches.

I had it at school and was wearing it skateboarding and I fell and hit it on the pavement and broke the crystal and the watch no longer worked. On my next visit home I gave the watch to my Dad and he sent it to our cousin for repair. He was not mad, I was just careless and forgot I had it on.

I pretty much forgot about the watch and went on and started my own collecting, starting with a gold longines I got for graduation, but thats another story.

About 10 years ago I was at my fathers and was showing him my latest Rolex I had gotten and he brought out the Gallet and told me I could have it. He had it for all these years and wore it some but not often enough for me to notice it. It had been repaired and was in good working order. I was so glad to have this beauty back, especailly now that I appreciated what fine watches really were.

I took the watch to my watch repair guy when I was picking up an Omega I was having repaired, and he saw the watch and commented that this was a flying officer and wanted to know if I wanted to sell it. I of course said no. I found the watch was worth about $900 at the time, which was pretty good for a watch my father paid around $200 for back in the 60's.

The Watch: Early to mid 60's Gallet Flying officer. 17 Jewel Landeron 149 Manual Movement. The case is stainless steel and is 37mm and 14mm thick. Two sub-dials. One for seconds when the watch is running and the other dial being a 60 minute counter. The hands are luminous and are faded from time. The watch is still pretty accurate and works like a charm when I wear it.

In my research I found that Gallet is one of the oldest watch companies around. They made their first watch in 1685 and came out with the first Flying Officer Model in 1938 for American fighter pilots. According to thier website, Gallet is still producing the Flying Officer.

This is one watch in my collection that I will never part with, just for the history and childhood memories.

I hope no one got bored with this review or thought it to be corny, but I felt I owed the watch and my Father the homage to go along with the review. I am sure some of you have a son that adores one of your watches and will someday be writing a similar review. Thanks