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Backed by Breitling’s House of Brands group, Gallet’s return was hotly anticipated and closely scrutinized. Priced between $2,900 for a three-hand Flying Officer model with date and about $6,700 for the vintage-inspired ‘Classics’ models, replete with Breitling B09 hand-wound calibers, the revived brand’s pricing at Breitling boutiques is certainly aggressive. 

Gallet’s rebirth and price-category decision mark the most high-profile and ambitious attempt by the Swiss watch industry to reclaim a space it once owned but has largely ceded in recent years to so-called ’boutique’ or micro-brands that have filled the gap left by traditional Swiss brands moving upscale.

Over the past decade, brands have climbed the value-category ladder even higher, making fewer watches at higher prices. The so-called mid-tier premium—or luxury watches with an MSRP between $2,000 and $5,000—was once dominated by Swiss brands from Omega to Breitling to TAG Heuer and Jaeger-LeCoultre. And while TAG Heuer still produces plenty of watches in the category, including the solar-powered quartz Formula 1, much of its development and marketing resources have been focused on new pricier versions of classic chronographs housed in titanium or other lightweight materials including the highly innovative, but eye-wateringly expensive, Monaco ‘Evergraph’ retailing at more than $28,000.

“When you see Gallet and their pricing, if you look at a lot of the mainstream brands, they’ve moved prices higher and higher,” says Toby Sutton, the U.K.-based vintage watch dealer who has successfully revived Dennison, which is based in Geneva, producing design-forward watches at entry- and mid-tier prices.

“It’s a huge market that’s been left by the big Swiss watch brands, so it is quite interesting to see some try and make a return,” Sutton added.

With its new but already well-defined branding image of adventure and “wanderlust,” House of Brands CEO George Kern says Gallet will draw on Breitling’s strengths, experience and manufacturing knowledge to help the new sister brand compete and win market share in a category Breitling no longer occupies.

A critical element to the Gallet brand is leveraging Breitling’s name and reputation as well as the economies of scale it enjoys in manufacturing and procuring components. All the Gallet casebacks are engraved with “Manufactured By Breitling” and the brand will be sold in about half of Breitling’s retail network of some 300 doors worldwide.

“We could never have done this without Breitling,” Kern says. “It would not be possible.”

The rough-and-ready Gallet relaunch serves as the counterpoint to the upscale revival of Universal Genève in April, also by Breitling’s House of Brands group. While the surprising number of new UG models were widely lauded for their design, quality, and craftsmanship, the entry price positioning above $15,000 followed the industry trend of vaulting up the luxury price scale, frustrating some purists of the brand, which was previously considered more of a mid-level marque.

The fact that the House of Brands wants to reclaim market share at the lower end with Gallet doesn’t surprise Niels Eggerding, the Chief Executive Officer of Swiss brand Frederique Constant. Priced below even Gallet’s aggressive positioning, Eggerding says FC has enjoyed double-digit sales growth in the past year, as wealthier customers are willing to spend more on watches in fast-growing economies such as India and Mexico, while clients in more mature regions such as Europe and the U.S. are increasingly looking for value and more bang for their buck.

Eggerding has kept the brand’s pricing and costs in check, thanks in part to its parent company, Citizen of Japan. With a parent network that includes movement manufacturers in Switzerland and Japan and brands ranging from Alpina to Bulova and Citizen itself, the Swiss brand has stronger leverage in negotiations with its suppliers. It’s also been growing volumes, according to Eggerding, and has been cutting waste to boost efficiency in the production process and reduce costs.

At the same time, Fredrique Constant is aiming to raise the quality, feel, and design of its products, such as its recently updated and redesigned Worldtimer priced at about $6,000, as it competes with the few historic Swiss brands that have managed to stay in the mid-tier price category.

Swatch Group’s Longines, for example, has gained notice and grown sales in the U.S. and the U.K., according to people familiar with the brand’s performance, with its recent slate of novelties that include a new monopusher chronograph priced below $4,000 and a new Pilot Flyback Chronograph priced at about $5,500.

“I want to offer even more value for the price. I’m going to really go be very aggressive there,” Eggerding says. “I’m doing that because Longines is, of course, also a monster, and I can only attack them by using their strength against them with my brand, and that’s value for money,” he adds.

Independent Swiss brand Oris has long been a leader in the category, and as the industry has struggled in recent years to grow demand, the Holstein-based marque has zeroed in on novelties at the lower end of its price range, including the Star Edition and Big Crown Pointer Date “Bullseye.” Both are priced at around $2,300 and have enjoyed demand outstripping supply, says Oris Chief Executive Officer Rolf Studer. The Oris CEO says the Swiss industry trend of lower volumes is a long-term existential threat that brands must address by making better, more popular watches in the mid-level price segment.

“If we lose too much volume, this is going to be a major, major problem for this industry,” Studer says, noting that suppliers such as Sellita (which is also used in most Gallet models) are producing fewer movements but at higher prices to preserve sales and margins.

 “Everyone is affected, but if we price ourselves out of society, this will have a very negative impact on the whole cause of Swiss mechanical watches,” he says.

While the House of Brands did choose to revive a dormant heritage brand for its re-entry into the mid-tier price segment, the products, with the exception of the ‘Classics’ line, are unapologetically commercial and aimed at the general watch consumer, not the enthusiast.

By leveraging the group’s economies of scale, the watches, in person, achieve the goal of conveying a quality, Swiss-made watch at a reasonable price. That’s a laudable result from an industry and a company that’s been struggling to make the case for value for money, and the sales performance of the new brand will give clues as to whether the Swiss watch industry can remain a meaningful competitor in the price segment or if the shift to full luxury pricing, volumes, and categorization is an inevitable result for the historic Swiss sector.