The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Just got back from 6 days of typical Louisiana weather....95 deg f, 95%, lightning and torrential rains every day Somehow managed to get in 2 complete rounds of golf that even the locals were betting against!. The bad news..... back home in sunny Cali while tooling down the freeway with my arm out the window, I glanced at my watch, Did I smudge it on something? Wiped the face, didn't go away. Pulled over took out a loupe and saw the 12 to 3 quadrant had fogged inside. Absolute Shock! How could this happen on a less than 2 year old dive watch ???? The only time the crown was not screwed down tight was when I changed time flying between time zones. And I did not play golf with the watch on. This really blows! Guess I'll be sending to BUSA.

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911monty

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I would hold off - rapid change of climate may easily have caused it - if it goes away and doesn't come back then that's the likely explanation.

Thanks Roff; I searched previous posts and the majority opinion seemed to be don't hesitate and immediately send in. I am really bummed. I'll watch it for a few days. It's still under warranty until December.

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911monty

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Send it in immediately if there's no logical explanation, under this circumstance there's an explanation that could easily account for it.

Hmmm. I don't even like the thought of having that much humidity inside a watch. Seems like it would be easy to have an inert gas such as nitrogen inside the case and eliminate the humidity altogether. Does any watch maker currently do this?

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911monty

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No.

Some movements are oil filled, but that creates its own (servicing) problems.

The watch is not perfectly sealed so gases will migrate in and out of the case.

Thanks again Roff! Currently the watch is clear as a bell. Maybe I'll take out into the sun and see what develops.

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911monty

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An update....

Someone PM's me to correct something that I said - no idea why they didn't just post, but here's the meat of the PM......


Certain Sinn watches like this are filled with Argon to prevent moisture, & a Copper Sulfate capsule. When the capsule changes color, or through some other mechanism, it's time to change it, & refill with fresh Argon.

http://www.watchbuys.com/store/pc/Sinn- ... -4p296.htm

As a compromise, what I would personally do is take it to a dealer and have them perform a pressure test which will see if the unit still has water resistance...with that said, most jewelers will only be able to test to a few hundred meters max...not the mile and a half that the Steelfish can do but it would still be enough to detect bad gaskets.

I think that Roff's assessment of what occurred is spot on. Seeing the amount of moisture trapped inside the case is sobering at least. I think SINN has a winner there in their inert gas filled case. This could easily be done in a gas filled chamber when assembling the case back. Environment would probably be fairly stable until the service interval was attained thereby minimizing effects of internal corrosion. Would be a better solution than just exchanging for whatever atmosphere happens to exist in the shop at the time!

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911monty

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I sent the Sinn link to Roff since I was not certain it was permitted to
publicly post it. Sinn also offers tegimented steel (used on German subs/
U-boats), COSC thermocompensated quartz calibers, & reasonable
prices that do not force forclosure on many watch collections to get one.