The Breitling Watch Source Forums

For those of you who have the insatiable thirst for all things mechanical, go to http://www.timezone.com/library/horolog ... 1715938957 and scroll down to the text for the bottom plate. The picture of the plate with the calendar wheel attached is the one that shows how this works and why setting the date between 8 PM and 3 AM can damage the movement.

Look at the brass wheel at the 4 o'clock position. It has one tooth and is the wheel that changes the date. The wheel is driven by the time train and is not free to rotate. Between the hours of 8 PM and 3 AM, the wheel tooth will be in a position to prevent the calendar wheel from moving unless you apply excess force.
One can clearly see that considerable damage can be inflicted by forcing the calendar to change when this wheel is in an interfering position.

In this particular case, from what you describe, it appears that one tooth on the calendar wheel is slightly bent. Fortunately, the amount of interference was slight.

I use the catch phrase "Three to eight, set the date!" as a reminder.

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1809 Cosmonaute
1903 Navi
Navi Olympus
Super Avenger

Change the time forward, changing backward can cause the same issues as using the quick set date.

This is probably heading off-topic, but a lot of money can be saved by adopting the practice of only adjusting the hands forward when setting the time. I know it is a PITA when moving from DST in the fall, but watches with complications don't react well to moving the hands in reverse. What might not damage one movement can do substantial damage to another of different type. Repeaters are by far the worst. One can easily rack up a $1,000 (or greater) repair bill by moving the hands in reverse.

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1809 Cosmonaute
1903 Navi
Navi Olympus
Super Avenger

Agreed, although there are currently few if any Breitlings where this is a practical problem as they don't have the really complex complications.

Ive been monitoring my watch and it looks like i def. dodged a bullet this time.

The date is changing normally between 11:55 and 12...and the date position is centered...lets see how it goes through the rest of the month.

Hoooraaaay!

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SHARKMAN

Just to be sure, is it ok to advance time by 24 / 48 / whatever no. of hours hours to advance the date (meaning not use the "date position" on the crown but the "time position") during the 8 pm to 3 am window?

Oh, and another question, is it ok to move time back by just an hour or two if one is outside the restricted hours of 8 pm to 3 am? I know it was mentioned above in a post as being ok as the watch does not have the complex movement but wanted to be sure I understood.

It is ok.

My Colt Ocean (11 years old) has no such warning in the booklet.
I was blissfully unaware of any problem about changing the date between certain times.. I just followed the instructions as detailed in the booklet. As a result, after 6 and a half years the adjuster stopped adjusting and would spin freely. The hands could not be moved either.
At this point I took it in for repair/battery change and service at the AD where I bought it.
I asked if this was a common problem and was told that it was, but no details were given about changing the date at certain times.
In fact, I only found out about it by reading these forum pages last week!

It is a rather serious flaw, in my opinion. It would seem a better idea if the date change mechanism could be somehow disengaged from the winder during the "danger period". Either that or just fix the problem, maybe.

It's not a Breitling issue, the vast majority of mechanical movements have the same issue. The new Breitling in house movement does have instant date change, but it's a harder piece of mechanics to implement.

Thanks for the clarification Roff. Not having owned a "decent" watch before this one I was not aware of this weak point.
Now I know about the problem I will take much more care with any subsequent Breitling or Rolex or whatever