The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Currently own a Fortis B-52 with 7750 movement, a Steelfish and Seawolf with B-17 movement. I do not use a watch winder. I have been manually winding the watches every couple of days (the Fortis daily because of a lack of use). Tonight I was winding my Fortis and something happened. The half disc (it has a display back, not sure of the proper name) suddenly caught and started winding with each wind. Also, the part mentioned does not move with watch movements.

The question remains. Does it damage the movement to manually wind the watch? If so, I guess I need to get a winder. I personnal think the Fortis is not the same quality of the Breitlings, so perhaps that is why I have had problems, even though the base movement is used by Breitling.

R/

Not sure why the rotor (that's what the "half disk" is called) would've "caught" so that it twists with each manual wind. That sould like a problem to me, so you will need a trip to an AD. BUT there is no problem at all with manually winding an automatic watch. they are designed to allow the option of manual winding. Seiko (amongst) others produce a very cheap automatuc movement that doesn't allow manual winding (the crown just free-wheels if you try to) so if manual winding was bad for an auto the manufacturer could quite easily prevent the operation.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

The rotor should move independently based on the position of the watch. It is essentially gravity driven. The fact that it is tracking the movement of the keyless works (winding/setting part of the watch) indicates that something is not free to move in the rotor assembly. It's time to take it to a watchmaker

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I'm no expert, but this answer makes a lot of sense to me.

Michael

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Breitling, Omega, Rolex... what can I say, I like Swiss watches.

I find this odd as well, the fact the rotor doesn't normally move with watch movement

Just got my Fortis back from the watch maker. Basically cost about the same as a chrono service at Breitling without making it look new. I was told that the lub had broken down and he took the movement completely apart, cleaned it, reassembled and regulated it. Funny thing is that the watch is just about 2 years old. I probably should have sent it back to Fortis. Oh well, I'm not a huge fan of this watch since I got the Breitling bug and would probably sell it if it were not a special edition. Either way, it is working now. For how long will be question.

Are you saying that he charged you about $500 to strip, clean, oil, reassemble and time it???

Sorry, but that guy ripped you off if that's the case.

Yep. What do you do, except not go back. It did get under my skin especially since I don't wear it much. Oh well, live and learn. What I learned most is to never buy a Fortis.

R/

I wouldn't say that, but more like "always ask for the cost before you commit to any work - you can always ask someone else for a second opinion".

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