The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi,

my watch (B04) is still in the "break-in" period but after wearing it for two weeks I am pretty sure that it's accuracy will stay where it is now.
The watch runs 5sec fast every day. Resting it in different positions allows to get from +2 to +4 sec per day.
It is very VERY consistent. Every day +5,2sec.

My question is if that is possible to fine adjust it for those 5sec?

I have watched Super Factories: Breitling and particularly the part: chronometry. A lady there is using some hi-tech electronic device to adjust the watch. I believe that turning the +- screw in the watch by myself would lead to nowhere, right?

Is actually the watch being sent back to Swiss for adjusting? I have a record of different watch resting positions and how much time it gains in those positions. Would that information help the service to tune my watch?

Thanks!

I would be very lucky if they could slow it down by 5sec. Then I would not need to adjust the time at all in the whole year!

Hi. 5sec is not bad. I recon you need to run the watch in for another couple of months. Say 3 to 6 before making any adjustments. It also runs a little faster if you hand wind it a lot. They are designed to run at "half wound" most of the time (only winding from movement on your wrist). Do you hand wind, using the crown, your sometimes ?


[WATCH]️

You don't have to wait 3-6 months, break in period will be two months max. Watch will also not run faster with a full reserve, in fact it will tend to run faster with a low reserve due to reduced amplitude which will equate to increased frequency in the escapement.

The watch is running within COSC specs and does not need regulating. If you did have it regulated then when the temperature changes, the humidity changes, your usage pattern changes or any number of other factors occur it will be inaccurate again. The reason for a 10 second range in COSC specs is for exactly that reason, rates vary. If you absolutely must have it regulated then any AD with a watchmaker can do it in a few seconds but you may as well make an appointment every few weeks to have it done again if you are looking g for close to +/- 0 on a consistent basis.

Thanks for your inputs.

I actually got tempted to hand wind it after one week of wearing that changed nothing to it's accuracy.

I understand that the watch can run differently in different temperatures, pressures, etc. In the last two weeks I was almost every day in different temperature/humidity zones. Warm and humid, back to cold and dry.
I have been comparing the watch time with airliner's GPS (which is 100% accurate) time almost every 24h and as I said before every day stiff +5sec. regardless of temperature, humidity or pressure. I wear the watch actively on some days and some very lazy days like sitting still the whole day. Results are again the same. +5sec.
If I got different results different days I would understand that fine tuning my watch was not possible. Here, again I get very consistent results. That only says how fantastic this B04 mechanism is.
So the question is if I get it back to AD and tell them I need this watch run 5sec slower, would they be able to do it? Do they have equipment to do it or it would be shooting blind?

Thanks!

Yes some AD's may be able to regulate it fractionally better, but it's really just a snap-shot in time, and TBH I'd suggest leaving well alone as +5 is a fine level of accuracy. When you consider there are 86,400 seconds in a day, at +5 seconds your watch is running to 99.9942% accuracy. Personally I'd say that considering there are no computers or circuits controlling it, just wheels, springs and jewels, that's a truly fantastic achievement.

As Roff said above, even though your watch has been consistent in gaining 5 secs a day, it is likely to change very slightly due to any number of factors. Even the level of power reserve can (relatively speaking) dramatically change the accuracy. Mechanical watches just cannot compete with quartz in terms of consistency or stability, so if your watch is currently very stable, I'd suggest leaving it alone and just enjoy it for what it is. Trust me, you will drive yourself mad if you keep checking it against atomic timekeeping sources.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Not to mention it will tend to run slower as it gets further away from production and the amount of lubrication decreases, increasing friction.

Ok, thanks! I will leave it as it is and see what happens in some months.