The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi all, first post here.

I purchased an avenger blackbird just over a year ago as a gift to myself for my 30th birthday (I have wanted a Breitling for years and seemed like a good excuse!), but to be honest I've had nothing but issues with it ever since I've owned it and was wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience or can offer any advice on what I can do about it.

The first issue was the fabric strap that comes with the watch frayed and basically started coming apart after about a month. I returned the watch to the Breitling dealer that I bought it from and they sent the strap away to be inspected and replaced. At that point I decided to change the strap itself as I’d had such a bad experience of that strap I didn’t really trust it just being replaced with another. I then paid another £160 for a Diver Pro III strap to be fitted and I kept the replacement fabric strap in the packaging they sent it back to me in.

I then started to notice the watch was gaining time (I understand there’s an acceptable level for this, but it was gaining around 5 minutes every 3 - 4 weeks) so once again I took the watch back to the Breitling store and they sent it off again.

After about 4 weeks the watch was returned, I asked what the issue was / what work had been done on it but the guy in the shop couldn’t tell me anything that had been done other than it was now all sorted.

I’ve had the watch back for a couple of months now and it’s once again gaining 5 - 6 minutes every 3 - 4 weeks (in fact as far as I can tell it never stopped gaining). To top it off I took the watch off last night and noticed the inner of the rubber diver pro strap is now showing a significant sign of wear.

I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to do next, as if I simply go back to Breitling with the time gaining issue I’ll hazard a guess that it will be sent off and repaired again only for the same thing to happen over the course of the next month.

I’ve been googling and can’t seem to find any other reports of issues like this with either the avenger blackbird original strap or the gaining issue, so was wondering if anyone else had had anything similar or could recommend what I can do about it.

As much as it pains me to say this as I genuinely love the watch, but I’m starting to wish I hadn’t bought it

On the timing issue, can you measure it exactly? You'd know exactly where you stand and it would help your case with the dealer / Breitling. COSC spec/s are -4/+6 seconds per day. (And a new watch often runs a bit fast before slowing down as it settles.) So if for example yours was gaining +6 per day, which would be within spec, that would be +42 a week and about 3 minutes a month. If it's materially faster than that then yes you'd want it looked at, but it would be good to know exactly how fast it's running.

I have read that the Breitling fabric straps tend to be rubbish so you did the right thing by upgrading to the Pro III rubber strap.

On the movement issues, it can happen. If after 2-3 repair attempts the problems are not solved it is time to seek relief and politely but firmly request a replacement watch. If the movement has an inherit tolerance of manufacturing defect, no amount of repairs will ever fix it.


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Sorry, but that's about as accurate as your assertion that a perfectly real watch is fake. The watch needs a simple regulation, nothing more. It sounds as though it is consistently running slightly outside of specs, and it sounds like any settling (which tends to result in a slowdown) should have occurred by now. There is nothing 'faulty' about a watch that is running at a consistent rate, even if that rate happens to be faster than 'real' time - an adjustment to the escapement (a regulation) will address the issue.

The problem here is the dealer who sends a watch away that has no issues, any AD with an onsite watchmaker can fix it quickly and easily. It would also be worth running the watch through a demagnetiser, although it is unlikely to be magnetised as the gain is relatively small.

I am no expert and don't claim to be one. But in situations where multiple repairs have been made and the issue(s) are not resolved, then it seems reasonable for the buyer to seek satisfaction via replacement.

As for that watch, yeah it looked faked to me and glad it isn't. We are here to learn.


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