The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Thanx to advanced tech, certain cars & trux don't need oil/lube jobs,
or @ least not for many years. Certain watches never need oiling thanx
to new inventions such as silicium (silicon), used as escape wheels &
other components. Eventually, all new watches may never need servicing
as enhanced advances allow. When these sorts of breakthroughs reach
humans, the results will be infinitely applicable & phenomenal.

Not really true.

Watches are lubricated in the escapement, the running train and the mainspring / barrel - name me a watch that has all of those elements made of lubrication free material!

Irrelevant to this thread anyway as Breitling don't use silicon in any of their movements.

And in the future, all occurrences of "ks," "at," and "and" in the English language will be deemed obsolete, as "x," "@," and "&" will be seen as superior and more expeditious choices.

Oh wait...that's already happened.

Well, based I'm the internals of my elderly quartz analogue watches, I'd say pretty good.

On a mechanical movement, the moving parts - if you'll allow me to get technical a moment - whizz about quite a bit and are prone to wear. On a quartz watch, the mechanical bits are moving in a lot more leisurely manner, so the tendency to wear I'd greatly reduced.

I'd suggest popping the £100 a year saved by just having battery changes done in the bank and use that to pay for a new movement should one be necessary, or just to buy a new movement when it looks like breitling are about to discontinue the one that's in there.

Just my 2d
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Gyp
Avenger Seawolf Chrono

Over the 20 years that you referenced the second hand will move 631,152,000 or nearly 2/3 of a billion times. If you honestly think that the (minimum) 13 years after the oil is completely broken down (that will be over 400 million of those ticks with no lubrication) is doing no damage, well it's your watch - but not really good advice for others.

How much do breitling charge for a new movement?

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Gyp
Avenger Seawolf Chrono

Depends on the movement - one member recently got quoted 2,400 Euros for upgrading his damaged non SQ Emergency to an SQ.

I'm
Not sure breitlings do retain any real value over time, if you buy new.

A quartz watch may run fine for a very long time. Might even outlive you. Thats not the point. The point is that a quartz watch has a finite lifespan. At some point, whether tomorrow, or long after youre dead, it will die and require a replacement movement. If that replacement movement isnt available any longer, youre out of luck.

This is why a mechanical watch has a higher perceived value among watch people. It may not make sense, particularly given the time span that we that we may be talking about, but its still the way it is.

_________________
-RJ

And I remember being shocked at that at the time and expecting that there would have to be extensive further refurbishment cost and profiteering to explain that cost.

The Op's used watch £800 (IIRC).
New version of Op's watch £2000.
New quartz movement £2200.

Doesn't stack up.
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Gyp
Avenger Seawolf Chrono

I completely agree.

What I'd love to have is some stats on the failure modes of quartz watches, both serviced and unserviced.

My expectation would be (and if be happy to be proved wrong) that the most common failure of both would be of the electronics and not of the mechanical bits, and hence the money spent servicing the bit that's less likely to give problems is a false economy.

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Gyp
Avenger Seawolf Chrono

To me it is not a matter of economies or risk taking but more a case of principles.
If I spend several $Ks on a nice watch I will get it serviced as recommended by the manufacturer simply because I like to know that it is as pristine on the outside as on the inside.
Whenever I buy a used watch that is several years old, I take it to Breitling for a full service right away by default and don't even bother to check how well it is running. I like to know that it is in perfect condition rather than hope that it still OK because it is still running. Of course this will cost extre $$$ but if $$$ was the main concern I would be buying a $50 Timex in the first place.
"Luxury watch" and "economy" are contradicting terms IMO.

_________________
"It is just a matter of time!"

I'm the same, risk-averse, and part of the pleasure of ownership is knowing that it's being looked after as it should be. (I've done the same with s/h cars: taken them straight to specialists for front-to-back services for the peace of mind. When they reported back that all was well, I never thought, "damn, money wasted", I thought "good, now I can stop fretting".)

Given the price increases we've seen over the last few years, it would seem the Swiss watch industry agrees with you.

Hypothetical situation (one of many): Your watch gets moisture inside from the crown or caseback. Movement is damaged. A mechanical watch would be serviced, a quartz would have the movement replaced.

_________________
-RJ