Gallet service experiences for vintage?

I would add that, when a watch is returned and appears to run well - as it neither gains or loses an excessive number of seconds per day - the watch may yet be in poor condition.

I've learned (the hard way) not to send a watch out for service without examining it under magnification, taking photographs of the watch and especially the movement . . .and benchmarking the watch with a timegrapher.

When you put it through its paces upon return, you'll know whether it was properly serviced or not.

Good luck to everyone who is waiting for the return of a watch out for service.

Cheers,

Joe

There are a number of sources for pushers that will undoubtedly work and look original, but one will have to be able to measure the various parameters and then purchase a pusher or pair of pushers best matching the measured parameters. Esslinger comes to mind, but there are many more. A good watchmaker will know how to specify and locate replacement pushers close enough to the original that you won't see the difference. In the case of plated pushers, it may be necessary to install a matching pair.

Gallet Service Experience

PDXLEAF, You are not alone in having received a watch returned from "Gallet" that was allegedly serviced, but which did not run properly.

I sent just one watch to "Gallet," and got it back three times running poorly. I sent the same watch to my preferred watchmaker and when it was returned, it was running as a newly serviced watch. The second watchmaker was reluctant to say what he found, but upon pressing him, I was informed that the watch looked dirty and therefore appeared not to have been serviced. The watch had been out of my hands for over a year at "Gallet" and a couple months more with my preferred watchmaker. I paid $850 to Gallet and later, a similar amount to my regular watchmaker: one proper service for the price of two.

What I either now know for a fact - or believe to be true today - should be seen as cumulative knowledge mixed with a bit of speculation developed over a period of a couple of years. As far as what I have learned about what has been going on concerning the Gallet business? This I have dug up in the past two to three weeks.

Eventually I came to the opinion that Gallet subcontracted repairs to others and that the primary 'other' at least during the period of my own watch service was a watchmaker named Lu. My watch was received by Gallet on January 18, 2019 and was returned to me for the third time in March of 2020. Lu died on November 26, 2020 after an illness.

Did Gallet in the US ever have watchmakers on their payroll and under direct supervision? I don't know, but today, I suspect not. The two names that come up repeatedly in US filings that I have been able to locate are David Laurence and Amanda Slaz. Larry Slaz has not shown up in any of the filings I have located thus far.

As to Gallet . . .

The folks on the US side of the pond don't want to get into any details as to what happened concerning the business and their involvement - not with me, anyway - which is their prerogative. I have done some digging for information in the public sphere.

I asked questions of David and Larry and did not receive any information concerning the company beyond what was stated in the post above.

Who owns the Gallet name?

The fellow who apparently bought the intellectual property/brand/name from Bernard Gallet in the 1990s is a fellow named Walter Hediger. His primary residence has been Zollikon, but it is my understanding that he owns - or has owned - property in the US as well.

There are various entities which include "Gallet" within the legal name. The one that WH first used - Gallet Group AG - appears to have been brought into existence circa 1985 . . . and filed for bankruptcy in Switzerland and was dissolved in early 2021.

Gallet Group AG, with some participation by the people in the US, developed the Gallet Heritage chronograph circa 2018-2019 and WH contracted with Vaucher Manufacture, Fleurier to build the watch. A legal dispute over payment, versus quality and quantity of product resulted in Gallet Group AG filing for bankruptcy which resulted in dissolution.

One side of the story is presented in the links below:

Interview with Walter Hediger:

https://thevictimshelpclub-com.tran...k-talk/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

The story as told to the Victims Help Group:

https://thevictimshelpclub-com.translate.goog/case/vaucher/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

I have had no contact with Walter Hediger.

It does appear that he has other entities active with the Gallet name. Here is one such: Gallet Watches AG

https://business-monitor.ch/en/companies/360220-gallet-watches-ag

Who will eventually own the Gallet trademark and what will happen to the brand?

We'll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, if one sends a watch to Larry, one will be sending the watch to Larry.

Cheers,

~ Joe

My personal history, when it comes to watch collecting, only goes back a few years - to 2017 or 2018 - so not that far back. Sometime after I bought my first Gallet chronograph, I ended up with a fine, small collection. How did this even happen to me? 😉

Before I sent the one watch to Gallet, I reached out to "the service department" there and received a prompt and cordial response. While others may have been complaining publicly about not getting responses, I was receiving responses to every one of my inquiries and over time, I developed a pleasant dialog with David Laurence and also with Larry Slaz to a lesser extent. I have had a couple of telephone conversations that each lasted over an hour. I found myself wondering how long these conversations would have lasted had I not excused myself. These fellows were pleasant and seemingly passionate about Gallet watches.

So as I waded through my negative experience with "Gallet Service," I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps a dying watchmaker delivered a level of service that was worse than no service at all . . . and perhaps "management" as it turns out, only two people at most, did not supervise their watchmaker? For the record as they say, I no longer believe in their ignorance.

What Dan S. says is true, but it is also true that nice "normal" people can be charming and sometimes it's difficult to know whether one is being bamboozled, especially when one is prone to giving people the benefit of the doubt.

You be the judge.

Here is the thing for now . . .

I feel comfortable sharing information which is in the public domain and may be found by anyone who wants to spend the time poking around for it. I also feel comfortable sharing personal experiences.

What I do not feel comfortable doing is sharing information that developed from private correspondence during a time when there ought to have been a presumption of privacy. It's the kind of courtesy we all would like to receive, I am sure.

With that said, I would no longer take anything that Larry Slaz has to say at face value. Suicides? Really?

Anyone who reads this thread has been warned.

Cheers,

Joe

Edit: An acquaintance has indicated to me that he has communicated with Walter Hediger within the past week and that WH intends to continue to try and "save" Gallet.

This version of the brand is still active:

https://www.moneyhouse.ch/de/company/gallet-watches-ag-3748570321

In time, we'll see.

As you read the links, please be mindful that you are only reading one side of the story . . . and one that has not been widely shared. VMF does not seem to have presented its side of the dispute to the public, but VMF appears to have prevailed against Gallet Group AG in Swiss court.

The movement looks clean and unmolested.

One thing I look for when opening a watch is the condition of the screw heads. The slots look perfect. They look almost new as . . . if they'd never been unscrewed or else the watch was serviced by a very careful watchmaker..

Earlier on in this thread I mentioned that you really need to put the watch on a timegrapher if you want to see whether the amplitude is as high as it ought to be for a recently serviced watch, whether the beat error is low and whether the plot on the timegrapher is straight and clean.

Even when the watch keeps time reasonably well, it does not indicate whether the watch has been properly serviced or not.

How did the watch run before you sent it in for service?

In either case, good luck to you.

Happy to see that you got the watch back.

~ Joe

Hey guys, from what i understand there is a Multichron Service center servicing Gallet watches that is independent and not of Gallet ownership.
Does anybody have a contact of that center, person working there an email or anything? Please don't mention Larry because it seems that he is a fictional person.... Regards