The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Purchased my 2nd Breitling, a used 2002 Emergency Mission, from the folks at Gold and Silver (Pawn Stars TV) in Las Vegas with a portion of my winnings from the week. The watch guru indicated that the emergency beacon feature had been deactivated, and I would like to know how to tell if the feature has indeed been deactivated (Pressing the 'TEST' button does cause the 1/100 dial hand to rotate every 2 sec or so, but the watch did not come with the box, paperwork, or tester). If the feature has been deactivated, can the feature be recommissioned? There is also a red indicator between the antenna knob and the watch face itself. A small hole near the antenna knob, where I assume the safety indicator pin was, is empty. Any info would be appreciated.

I wasn't aware that it could be deactivated.

I think that this is an issue for Breitling to address - you need to get in touch with them anyway as the Emergency / Emergency Mission needs to be registered to the owner so I would get them to check their records.

Thanks for the info.

Let us know what Breitling says - I've never come across this before. I know that if the signal is activated the watch has to go back to Breitling for replacement, but this is a new one on me.

The coolest watch Breitling has ever made

You're lucky to have one.

Spoke with a very pleasant young lady in the Breitling USA CT office, and I will be sending off the watch for a diagnosis soon. Will probably wear it for a couple of weeks first, so I will pass on the info as I get it. Thanks for the attention and stay tuned.

I'm really keen to hear about this one too. There's definitely something about the Emergency.

I'd love to know about this too?

The red bit between the antenna knob and the case is usually a plastic seal, I've seen some in black and some in red. If you want to test it, if you have an airband radio or any buddies who fly, if you tune into 121.5 and hold the test button, even without the antenna deployed you should hear the 'chirp chirp' noise through the radio, if you continue for 1 min it ends with a 'B' in morse code. I always do a quick test of mine on the aircraft box before I fly.

From the agreement I had to sign to register the watch, it clearly states that if it is inadvertently deployed the transmitter can be replaced for 50% of the retail price of the watch, not cheap!

Never unscrewed the cap but I suspect it would be possible to cut off the antenna and screw the cap back on if it had accidently been set off, the transmitter would probably continue to run for 48hrs until it goes flat but thats seperate from the watch battery so wouldnt affect operation.

Look forward to hearing what happens...

Breitling advice is just to wrap the antenna around the case.

Hello,

Here are 2 pictures about the activation and desactivation of the Emergency beacon:

So how long do you have to keep the antennae wrapped around your watch before you can cut it?

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End of Discussion.

Hello,

The beacon will "work" for 48H00.
After that the watch has to go back to Breitling for replacement of the beacon itself. Only if they still have some spare parts from Dassault France.
(Dassualt decided in August 2010 to stop the delivery for this beacon for Breitling, it was too old according to them: 15 years for this technology).

So Breitling stopped the Emergency Mission line in 2010 and the "regular Emergency" in 2011 (not present in the Bretiling catalog 2012).
A new Emergency line will be launched soon (2 years of research and tests were done, some more to do then) , according to the French Breitling's CEO (I spoke with him during a last main event in France, Salon du Bourget 2011). Perhaps in Baselwolrd 2012 or in 2013 with the next Salon du Bourget 2013...

Either cutting the antenna or wrapping the antenna around the the case doesnt make much difference, all it does is basically cut the transmission range to vitrually nothing, it doesnt actually stop the beacon running. The beacon will basically run once activated until the beacon battery goes flat after approx 48hrs.

Glad to hear they are still looking to launch a new Emergency!

Here's a shot to keep us going until the new one...

+1 for checking the seal to see if it's been activated, also breitling may have details on there database about the watch.


Merc

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