Ever buy a watch that you knew would be impossible to fix but it was too beautiful to pass up?

Interesting that Larry Slaz, whose name is coincidentally an amalgam of the surnames of the married couple running Gallet USA from Georgia, is not only a watchmaker but also a stock photo model.

Do you have an address for them in Florida? Lots of us members live in that state and someone in the area can do a drive-by and see what's what.

There is information about Gallet to be found on the Web. There are public filings that may be found for every corporation in the US with just a little effort.

David Laurence is a managing director of the corporation. In some places he is listed as CEO and in other places, Walter Hediger is still shown as CEO. Amanda Slaz is David's wife and also an officer of the corporation. Once upon a time, Amanda worked for the predecessor of the current Gallet company. Dan Horton is listed as CFO in some places. Larry Slaz runs the service operation and is Amanda's brother.

These things don't really indicate anything more than that the business is a small family run business and not a vast watch empire. Many small businesses are owned or run by members with familial relationships.

My feeling is this . . .

The current incarnation of the Gallet company does have parts available for the legacy Gallet watches and . . . one day . . . if they were to cease to exist . . . then the now available parts may end up in a dust bin somewhere.

Should we wish Gallet to continue to exist as an active company or would we prefer them to fail because we are unhappy with them for one reason or another?

I do believe that they did suffer the loss of two watchmakers sometime ago. They have probably overused this as an excuse for long delays in getting watches back to anxious owners, but it does seem like long delays have become a problem for many small or independent watchmakers as well.

I did send one watch to Gallet and I was not satisfied with the result, but I would not condemn them for one unsatisfactory experience. My experience was similar to Dan's above.

I have formed a relationship with another well-known watchmaker who I've sent several watches to and whose work is impeccable. I carefully benchmark every watch on the timegrapher before I send a watch out and I carefully analyze each watch upon return. Most of us probably just look to see whether the watch seems to be running better.

My preferred watchmaker was running 2 to 4 months on return and I was quite satisfied to wait up to even six months to get a watch back. Then, I happened to have purchased two watches from one fellow in the UK which were 'like new' and probably never serviced. I sent both watches to my favorite watchmaker and one of them took 12 months to get back and the second watch took 14 months to get back - this, without any warning at the time I sent in the watches to expect delays. Twice they promised to return the watches in 6 to 8 weeks from the time of inquiry and twice they failed to do so. The only explanation this well-known watchmaker gave to me for months was: "Sorry, but we are jammed up."

Not long ago I reached out to another well-known watchmaker active here @OF and he informed me that he does not want to disappoint . . . and so he stopped taking in new repairs as he is running about a year on repairs.

Two months ago I sent a rare and valuable watch to a fellow in Canada for repair (not our own Archer) and my palms will be sweaty until I get it back. It's only been two months so far. Please light a candle for me. 😉

Cheers,

Joe

This post having nothing to do with Gallet . . .

I don't have a lot of patience when there is a lack of communications as well.

I lectured my favorite watchmaker about his not having set proper expectations for the return of the watches I sent over a year before they were returned . . . and for his having made well-meaning promises that it turns out he could not keep.

He hasn't responded.

I fear that I have hurt his feelings. 😉

Either that, or he believes himself to be just too busy to respond . . . and that I should just accept that he did his best and be happy that the result was as good as usual in the end.

There is always more than one way to look at things.

My watchmaker got smart and hired an assistant to be the first line of communication, and to process all the emails. I can imagine emails can suck up a lot of time.

Not that this is going to make you feel any better, but one of the many reasons I miss the Philippines is our talented watch techs in Cebu City. If that was our Gallet, it would have had that pusher and whatever associated parts replaced with identical components within 3 days at the most, and for a maximum of 3000 pesos (about $60). The amount of vintage parts there for Swiss stuff is staggering, and what can't be found can be made in modern machine shops for cheap. The ONLY reason we don't use those techs regularly from the USA is the dangers of shipping. Shipping out of the Philippines to here via fedex is no problem, but going there is super risky. We use hand carriers whenever we know someone heading there for vacation and have a big bunch ready to go again next month. We only use those techs now for the most difficult-to-remedy stuff like triple date chronographs and other complicated pieces.

I think you have just unraveled their business model…

Plus the ‘buy a bag of watches for 50 bucks and flog them here for 500’ cherry on the cake 😎