The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi guys,
I just got this watch as a gift and have not found much discussion on the watch. I have some questions which I hope experts in this forum can help me out with
How many rotations do I need to wind the watch? Forum and user manual says 40 but how would I know when it has reach the max rotation? Often when I move my wrist around, I hear some clicking sound. Is this normal? I constantly find that the watch stops, even though I have worn it more than 4 hours. And I have to wind it again the next day. Is this normal or am I not moving my wrist much to have the rotors spin? Usually I will wind it (abt 3-5 full turns) and when it starts to run I will wear it and let my hand movement to do the rest. Is this a good practice or should I wind it 40 times as per manual? I find the power reserve is not as per what is stated. Is my watch faulty?
Apologies for my silly questions as I am new to the automatic watch world.
Hope you guys can help...

40 winds means 40 turns of the crown, so best way to know is to count You can't overwind it so no big deal if it's more. The noise you hear when wearing it is the rotor moving which is the way that the watch winds itself during the day. You will need to give it a full wind (i.e. 40 turns) before wearing it and then regular wear should keep it 'topped off'. No reason to think that there is anything wrong with the watch.

Don't do this ^



Do this ^

Guys thanks for the info. May I ask why it is not recommended on a few wind and wear it to get the power again? I read somewhere that this was a practice and it seem to work well in terms of care and maintenance.

It's not that it's not specifically recommended per se : it's just not the most efficient way to wind the watch. Give the watch a full wind - as Roff said you can't overwind an automatic, so give it 40, 50 or even 60 full turns of the crown and then just wear it. If it still stops after a couple of hours wear then it may have a problem.

With my autos I hardly ever manually wind them (apart from when I first get them) as wearing them and keeping them in a watch-winder when they are out of rotation does the job just fine.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

I can't think of a reason it would be beneficial to wind it only a few times.

If it is completely dead, 40ish winds gives you a full charge. Otherwise it would be like plugging a dead cell phone in and then unplugging it when it reaches 10% charged...not going to last long.

If it is not completely dead, and you are wearing it (or storing it in a winder) you shouldn't need to wind it at all (that's why it is "automatic").

The only thing I can think of is maybe for a manual (not automatic) mechanical watch. For that it may be good practice to wind it 3-4 times often (since the watch does not "charge" itself). Kinda like how some people who have a screw down crown give that crown a twist every now and then out of habit, just to make sure it is water tight...

Guys, thanks for the pointers. It stopped today and I have made 40 complete turns on the crown. Will be wearing it and see how it goes. Hopefully all is good and no fault on my new watch

Guys I have followed all the steps but still not getting the power reserve to last to 40 hrs. It stops every alternare day. Any owner of this watch care to share some experience on this watch?

How long is it lasting, and is that on or off the wrist? It needs attention, but it would be good to know the scale of the problem.

I've wound it at ard 8am (as obviously it stopped at night), put it on my wrist and head to work and put it back down on the table like ard 7pm. Next day it's fine and it's running, so same routine getting it on the wrist at 8am and put it back down at 7pm. Next morning when I wake up, it stops at 2am. Happen twice this week.

OK, so give it a full wind - you can't over wind it so give it a lot of turns, and then leave it alone - don't wear it and see how long the reserve lasts. That will help determine if the problem is with the reserve or with the automatic winding.

Also, post a picture (that's one of the watches on my "want list")

Was it new when given as a gift or pre-owned? If new it should be under warranty so you can take it to an AD for attention.

It's new and I wouldn't want to send it to service center now as they will take time and I might not have the watch for Christmas.

So did you run the test of giving it a full wind and then leaving it?