The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I rarely wear the watch since I sent it to BUSA ~3 years back and it came back broken (viewtopic.php?f=1&t=23013).

I just became paranoid and when it'll actually break again since BUSA. I usually keep the winder on if I'm planning on using it any time soon or I just leave it off... However- I realized that time is running a bit too fast that I can't recall in the past. It was ~10 mins fast from the past month. I readjusted the time and of course, I adjusted the date... The date hand completely stopped and it seems like the 2nd position to adjust the date and doesn't change anything. Given that it was during the middle of the day and while adjusting the date; I rolled the time back a few times and of course, it rolled the date hand back a few days.

Of course, that didn't help and the 2nd position with the crown and won't adjust it still but it's strange... The time is running and the time seems to be accurate since yesterday afternoon, and the weekday correctly rolled to "Friday" today. Seems like everything works but the date hand. Any suggestions or any tricks to get the date hand to start again?

Obviously, I'm well past the 1 year warranty since it went to BUSA 3 years back and not too excited sending it back and what it could cost or just visiting my AD? Probly won't be cheap either way.

Thanks!

edit: I guess I got lucky. I put it away since it got stuck and I tried again, today and it worked without issues. Weird.

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Montbrillant Datora

It's unlikely to have fixed itself.

If a hand is not moving and is not loose then the assumption has to be that the gears are fouling, and in the case of date change mechanisms that immediately leads to the assumption of the 'danger zone'. With the watch being inaccurate you logically assumed that it had gained 10 minutes, but if in fact the power reserve was dropping either because of insufficient winds from the winder or aging of the mainspring, then it could easily have been 11:50 slow. That would likely have meant that you changed the date in the danger zone.

Personally I would get it checked out.

If you change the date during the danger zone even once then it damages the movement?

It can do - all it takes is a bent or broken tooth on the partially engaged wheels.

No doubt that it didn't fix itself but I put it away so I'd avoid the danger zone until today. I like to think that the gears were still moving and I'm not sure. I'll have to watch it in the next few days and look at the date and time. It seems like the time is on the dot in the past 24hrs. Of course, I'm more interested in the date hands and if it keeps running.

Out of curiosity- What is the estimated lifetime of the mainspring and/or the gears and whatnot before services? 3 years back, BUSA completely built the watch, and all. It seemed like it would be a brand new watch sans the case? I haven't been sure when services are actually required.

I will definitely stop by my local AD and mention it and see what they think. They've been helpful in the past. In other news since I noticed that BreitlingUSA.com is gone and they must have tied it into the main site. Hopefully that'll help since I wasn't exactly happy after the service and finding that it had issues and I was ignored.

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Montbrillant Datora

The mainspring is replaced during servicing, the gears generally only every few services as needed. But......

The mainspring doesn't just fail - over time the power reserve will reduce and if the winder is only barely maintaining the reserve then it can easily drop. Alternately something as simple as a power outage or a failing battery can affect the turns per day of the winder.