The Breitling Watch Source Forums

As I mentioned a while ago on another post, my Steelfish has been losing a regular 5 seconds per day since I've owned it, so after missing a train as a result (hence why I hate slow autos!) I thought it was about time I sorted it out.

It turns out that even an approved Breitling repair AD will not regulate it on site.... even though they are approved by Breitling UK to repair watches! They told me that they'd have to send it to Breitling because "it takes quite a bit to reseal it so that it's waterproof to 1500m (sic)". (Surely screwing the back on with a new gasket and then pressure testing it to the correct 2000m isn't rocket science?) And they said Breitling wouldn't just regulate it - they'd have to service it too. Errrr... riiiiiiiiiiight. A couple of hundred pounds and a number of weeks without my watch didn't really appeal, funnily enough!

As it turned out I ended up taking it to an approved ROLEX REPAIRER (who are also happy to work on Breitlings and Omegas), who were more than happy to regulate it, reseal it and pressure test it on site (to the full 2000m equivalent) all for the princely sum of £30. And the watch was back on my wrist within 24 hours. That's service for you.........

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Wow. How did the Rolex dealer have the gasket etc for your fish?

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He isn't a dealer - he's an approved Rolex repairer only, but also does work on Breitlings and Omegas too. And he did say he needed 24 hours to do it because of the need to ensure water resistancy..... so by that I read that he'd need to ensure he had the correct gasket.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Must be specific to the Steelfish or UK dealers, as the local AD here used to regulate on-site... takes about 10-15mins.

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BreitlingSource Admin
http://www.breitlingsource.com - http://blog.breitlingsource.com

That's exactly what I was expecting too, Admin. If they have the correct timing setup (which an approved repairer-AD must have), plus the pressure testing gear (again, a given I'd have thought), then a regulation is a very simple job.

Never mind - mine is all set now.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Weird story - my Swedish AD will regulate it right away in the shop.

Driver, have you been bad to your AD lately so that they don't want to see your face?

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Collection: http://s540.photobucket.com/albums/gg32 ... mview=grid

Not that I've been aware of! In actual fact, my usual AD does absolutely no repairs at all as they are just a seller. I therefore tried the nearest approved repairer-AD from the Breitling website which fortunately is not too far from me, and it was they that told me it'd have to go back to Breitling. All very confusing as it begs the question what can the repair if they can't do a simple regulation.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

And is your Steelfish keeping better time?

Peter

Well it's currently only 22 hours since I picked it up, but I've just checked it against the atomic clock and it is still absolutely SPOT ON.

I basically told them in the Rolex place that I'd rather it be a few seconds fast than slow, so that's what he said he'd do while still trying to get it as close to exact as possible. It seems (at the moment at least) that he's done better than that! I'm going to keep an eye on it for a few days, but if it stays like this I'm going to be a very happy man! Well worth £30 IMHO.

It's just a slight shame that I had to turn to the "Big R" to get this done after Breitling wouldn't accommodate me.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Thanks Driver8,

I'm looking at the Steelfish to be my second Breitling after my Colt II superquartz.

At the moment I'm trying to get my head around the "less accurate" bit. My Colt II SQ has not varied by more than a second in the last 6 months, but I have read somewhere on this forum that a Fishy owner had a variation of around +1 second per month, which is good enough for me

Peter

Slight variance in time-keeping is just an inherent part of automatic watches I'm afraid. Chronometer rating tolerance is +6/-4 seconds per day which, while it may sound a lot by quartz standards, still represents 99.9% accuracy for a mechanical movement. However a fully mechanical movement can never be as accurate an SQ (or even ordinary quartz) movements.

If super-accuracy is really important to you, then you may be "disappointed" by that aspect of automatics.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Sad but true. My Emergency Mission was spot on. My Super Avenger is +2 a day, which to tell you the truth doesn't really bother me.

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If it's slightly fast it's less of a problem IMO. It doesn't matter if you're a few seconds early for something. But if you're a few seconds late can be a total pain in the backside! Missing that train cost me an hours wait!

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Maybe you should stop being "the last seconds" guy? I don't know about the trains in UK, in Sweden they try to shut all the doors 30 seconds before departure - just to avoid people running in at the last second, delaying the departure.

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Collection: http://s540.photobucket.com/albums/gg32 ... mview=grid