While they never pretended to compete at the level of the holy trinity (Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and Vacheron Constantin), Gigandet watches made a quite respectable mark for themselves with their mechanical watches, one of the most iconic ones being a Valjoux 723 based chronograph produced in partnership with Wakmann, such as the one that sold on the Hodinkee shop for USD 4,200.
1960s Gigandet Wakmann Triple-Calendar Chronograph, image credit Hodinkee
Behind Gigandet was Charles Gigandet, who created the brand in the Swiss town of Tramelan, and distributed watches in the US market in partnership with Wakmann. The brand barely survived the 1980s restructuring crisis and threw in the towel in the 1990s (Smith, 2020). Firstly by selling their production facilities to Victorinox, and then by liquidating in 2000.
That is where Christian Schmitt and Hans Meeder stepped in. Herr Meeder had a personal history with the brand, having inherited a 1976 Gigandet watch from his uncle, and from 2011 onwards, he sought to securing international rights to the Gigandet trademark.
Together, the business associates launched the distribution of Gigandet watches from Germany, under the company MTR24 GmbH. They were initially procured from private label, but in 2019 the associates switched to in-house production in the town of Würzburg, Germany.
At the time of writing, the portfolio of modern-day Gigandet watches is exclusively mechanical, by using Miyota, Ronda or Sellita automatic movements. The watches heavily draw inspiration from iconic Rolex models, are Made in Germany, and are very competitively priced between EUR 450 and EUR 880. Corresponding to USD 260 and USD 800 without EU tax, at the time of writing.
More at https://gigandet.com/.