The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I know that this topic has been flogged to death, but here's my story. Early model B'ling airwolf with co-pilot. Co-pilot 100m wr, Airwolf head 50m WR. 50m is designed for surface swimming ideally, & as the WR is based on static pressure the 50m WR excludes water sports apart from swimming. As posted now & again I use my watch all the time. I swim every few weeks with it. Wash it afterwards, service & replace the rings & gaskets every 12mths as recommended.
Yesterday, on my last day on holiday in the tropics(Bali) my Airwolf's defences failed & water invaded the head while surface swimming with my son(maybe a pusher was knocked while playing around, perhaps a gasket just failed).
Firstly after getting out the pool, I checked the time. The LCDs were blank, and the sapphire was opaque like with oily hands or sunscreen, thought nothing of it. Nothing unusual as the crown can spin the display blank which does get annoying. Dried the watch, an hour later spun the crown, nothing! Tried to wipe the crystal with a clean towel, but it was still slightly cloudy. Slowly over the next hour the whole watch fogged. 12hrs later the movement stopped, & droplets started to form. I can still hear a grinding once in a while from within the watch as its slowly dying.
Breitling service centre advised to send the watch in.....however....
I just renewed my insurance policy recently & remembered that it should be covered. Luckily it is!
Can't send my watch in until I get the nod now. Little bit of light at the end of a really dark tunnel.
When my watch gets resurrected it will NEVER go near water again. After this I would be unsure of trusting even a 100m wr watch. Which of course means I'll need another watch with a wr of 500m +.

Perhaps a silver chronomat GMT or.....heaven forbit a U-1001. First things first...save the wolf.

Beware of water...I looked after my watch like a child.

cheers

Sad to hear it Davo. It hurts when beloved watch dies like that. Hope it all works out well.

I never wear any of my Breitlings in the water, even the Steelfish. I remember an engineer friend telling me that there are two ways to measure risk. One is the likelihood of something bad happening. The other is the consequences of something bad happening. I figure the consequences of water getting in my watch is greater than I'm prepared to pay. So i wear an old Seiko in the water. So I'm with you!
Greg

My SA two months old...........fogged with condensation, i thought i must have a loose crown or pusher or something, but , no,... plus i hadnt been in any sort of water other than the shower..........i sent it back to BUK it was rectified under warranty with no explanation other than new seals have been installed.....this got me a Breitling cap, a Breitling carry case, and a six week without my watch.
This does make you wonder about the myth that is Breitling......is Breitling the product its reputed to be, is the quality as good as we all hoped it would be?
I bought mine for the way it looks and how i feel for the piece, but also the reputation of Breitling being a big big part in my purchase....i will make sure i dont go swimming , diving, or doing silly things with it from now on.
But adding to all that i find after reading and looking around, other "top" makes have similar problems as Breitling do.....which goes to helping relive my worries a bit........... ...maybe

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SUPER AVENGER 563 AIRFORCE BLUE
WHITE SUBS, PRO11 BRACELET

If I were you I would contact the insurance company and see if they will fast track approval. The longer that a watch stays wet, the worse the situation will be - it needs to get service attention as soon as possible - delays will just cause more damage.

That may be academic with a quartz piece as they may just replace the movement anyway, but your insurance company dragging their feet providing an approval will not help matters.

I would never wear my Wolf or B-1 to swim. Or a Navi for that matter. Just not worth the risk. I would wear my SAs or CA though. I wore my SA BS while snorkeling in Key West with no problems at all. To me there are watches for swimming and watches for flying. The Wolf, B-1, Aerospace, etc. are superb aviation tool watches. Just my opinion, but definitely not meant for water activities despite what the WR is. Regardless, I'm sorry your Wolf got jacked up - it should not have failed you. Best of luck with the repair.

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An ever changing collection.....

That's unfortunate. It would be interesting if they could find out what component/gasket failed. I tend to avoid water like the plague with anything rated less than 100m. Such a shame the Airwolf is not rated a bit better. They need to get some sort of magnetic crown and pushers on it like the Avenger M1/Seawolf chrono!

Close - the way risk is measured, in an engineering sense, is by the combination of severity and probability of an event. There are a few ways to get to the point where a risk is unacceptable.

That being said, I'd agree with the others and say that the severity of ruining your watch due to water ingress is high enough to warrent not risking it, no matter how unlikly a scenario it might be. I never really understood the desire to wear a watch in the water anyway. If I need a "dive" watch (which I don't), I would just get a proper digital one.

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“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.” - Albert Einstein

Awesome! That would make it perfect.

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An ever changing collection.....

I believe, at least from my short experience with this brand that the watches are made extremely well and have minor flaws if any. It has been mentioned on here several times that a shower is not a good environment for any watch due to the drastic temperature changes as well as steam. Personally, I avoid all water with my CSO (WR 500m) unless its getting a wash under the sink from time to time.

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sco
Breitling Chrono Superocean
Omega Aqua Terra 8500
Rolex Submariner Date Ceramic

This is a funny one for me. I pay a premium for a SF "Dive" watch rated at 2000 meters and when I wash my hands I push it up as far as it will go up my arm so as to avoid any possibility of even a light splash of water. Why. Why, is this My Wife thinks I am MAD. Even while in the pool last summer near Venice I shuddered BAD when I seen Guys with their tags on playing with their kids in the kids pool. Maybe it should be called a , well My SF anyway should be called a "Drinking" watch.
IMO it make my point even stronger in that the OP minded and cared for his watch and STILL ended up with a water failure.

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Breanach78

A Few Breitlings.

thanks for the support everyone, first the insurance company has been great the watch is on its way to get looked at.

Just thinking out loud. Everyone uses things differently. If a bought a $200k cessna I would fly it, not just taxi it on the ground..just in case something happened with it. Kind of defeats the purpose if it didn't fly. I purchased my boat because it can go fast. I don't baby it by going slow just in case something fails, or else why have it? Same for my watch. It's rated for 50m-surface swimming tops. I would tend to believe it would fail if it wasn't serviced regularly, or if it was abused or perhaps the one in a million quality control slips. My technical watch is a Suunto which I use for mountaineering etc. It's rated for 30m, so I do not swim with it. If the Airwolf was rated for the 30M I would respect that as well in the same way. No disrespect to those who don't wish to get their watches wet, but they are 'Instruments for professionals'. As such I expect they should perform pretty much flawlessly for the price! If you wear a cheap Seiko or Casio in the water instead of say a Steel fish, really why bother. If the brand doesn't give you faith in its genuine purpose that it's designed & marketed for, then why bother. Now its just being bought for its tag, social class or aesthetic property. Then it fails as a useful watch & becomes simply a fashion watch or a collectors item. True my Airwolf is aesthetically sensational, truly useful in aviation, & MOSTLY fine as a day to day watch. Which unfortunately is like having a MOSTLY reliable car. In other words I don't trust the watch anymore to what it's been classed as. Harsh--yes. In my my field of work I need to trust my equipment. Not wait for it to fail. My watch could be the one in so many which something unfortunate happened to, otherwise it really should be a 30m WR class of watch.

High price watches should be higher quality watches too. Brands can't afford to supply inferior products. I really need a very nice all round watch which up till now mine was. If many find a 'risk' vs price of getting a watch wet then this directly shows in the faith one has with the product.

To each his own.. I really require a professional watch. I might get a navitimer as my work watch, & look for a good watch for the water. By the way I still love the brand. Would I get a higher priced watch from Breitling & use it in the water....Unlikely

I agree with you except for the bolded part. Cost isnt very important in decision as to whether it can go into the water or not. If its made to do it, ill have no problem doing it.

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-RJ

Responding to multiple posts with 2 points -

1. I would NEVER swim wearing a watch with only 50m W/R rating. A good brisk dive into a pool has the potential to exceed the pressure of 50m water depth. I don't care what the tables say - never, ever!

2. I would NEVER swim wearing a chronograph UNLESS the pushers had screw locks or similar devices. I don't care what the tables say - never, ever!


Stepping off my now.

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SHARKMAN

I agree with the Shark on this. I take mine off to do the washing up. (watches as well)

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Al

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"

'Instruments for professionals' Breitings marketing I love breitling and the marketing around them. With regards 'Instruments for professionals' Is it gone well past all that?
If not why are the watches only available in high end jewers? Surly their dive range watches should be sold in Dive shops!! and there aviation range in were ever pilots shop!!!
I am pretty sure a "True divers watch" is nothing like a Breilting and I am also sure it can do its job a lot better and at a fraction of the price of one too.
Maybe I am Wong about this bu I guess thats just IMO.
With regards OPs Wolf, like Sharkmans post says, I feel you were not equipped with the right Instrument! 50M rating is more marketing, its not a true rating. But this is down to the industry and their rating systems. I bet if you were better informed, like you are now you would have a watch with the 500m rating on, like you referred too.

Unfortunately you were at the limits of you watch.... like the Cessna you speak of, I am sure it is passed to fly in strong weather conditions but you would not bring in up all the time, or probably even once if you knew that the weather was heading that way. Same case with your boat.
Nan those waves are not that high lets head out any way!!

BTW you should have keeped the Wolf for the Cessna not the pool

Of course relative wealth has a lot got to with it. One mans $500 Tag might mean the same to him as another's mans $200K watch.

All this say, I feel Breilting are luxury items and no matter how small the risk is I certainly will not be subjecting any of mine to water any time soon...

Just my very humble opinons....

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Breanach78

A Few Breitlings.