The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi there,

I have purchased a pre-owned Breitling Navitimer Cosmonaute limited edition and according to the website it has a power reserve of 70 hours. (Breitling 02)

This is the first mechanical hand wind watch I have owned.

I wind it about 20-30 times, I guess, however it stops within 48 hours. I get a bit paranoid of wind it more in case I break it. Would you recommend wind it everyday for about 10 times or I can only wind it 30-40 times when it's completely stopped?

Thanks!

Felipe, although I do not own the B02, you are most probably far from winding it fully,
I have wound hundreds of manual watches and never damaged a spring, some require more
than 40 of my winds.

A "wind" is not a clearly defined tensioning of the spring, every finger winding movement can be
different; you will feel a growing resistance toward the full wind and then the crown will stop
turning when you rather loosely hold it between index finger and thumb, you will still feel the
spring resistance - then stop; it should give you the approximate specified power reserve then.

:

In terms of daily winding, you cna wind it as often as you like as long as you stop when you feel that resistance (it will be obvious). I generally just top my manuals off once a day.

The resistance felt once a manual wind watch is fully wound is very noticeable, so provided you aren't going mad with the winding you won't miss it. As the other guys have said, just wind gently and stop as soon as you feel slight resistance.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Hi guys,

Thank you very much for all your help. I winded today my watch until the crown stop. Actually I could kept going but I felt a strong resistance so I decided not.

I've never winded before that much so let's see if it holds until 70 hours.

Regarding winding it every day. Does it cause damage if I wind 10 times a day rather than do the full winding (30-40 times)?

not at all. if you get used to wearing manual winds, you will wind it almost "subconsciously", without noticing what you are doing; my watches are rarely more than 10 or so winds away from a full wind when I wear them for a few days in a row - just stop when you feel relevant resistance, just like you did.

stop worrying, enjoy it !

yeah, you are right! funny enough i tried last wednesday to wind it until it was really hard to move but it's holding only 55 hours and not 70 hours as described. By the way, I bought this watch pre-owned and I am not using the chronometre. Could it be a problem?

These movements are harder to wind than regular pieces. If you aren't comfortable then take it to an AD and have them give it a full wind and then see how long it runs for. Unlikely that an otherwise properly running, not very old watch is going to have a significantly low power reserve - that would generally exhibit other issues as well.