The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi

I have just purchased a new Breitling Cronomat Evolution. I need help; this may come across a dumb post...........

Anyway, I know it's an automatic watch so you have to wear it all the time to keep the movement going. How long does the reserve last if you manually wind the mechanism. If the time/movement has stopped how many rotations do you need to charge the watch fully?

I read the manual which says do not change the time or date between 8pm - 3am, why is this, what happens if I travel to a new time zone? Will the date change automatically at 12:00 at night, if not how do you set the date to change at the right point. If I leave the watch and the power runs out, when I re-charge it will this mess up the date movement.

Anyway if you could help me understand my new automatic movement I would be grateful.

Cheers

Will.

Will,

Welcome to BreitlingSource!

Congratulations on a great watch, and let's try and answer the questions.

A full wind is 40 turns, but it's impossible to overwind an automatic - unscrew the crown until it pops out to the first position and then wind it forward 40 times for a full wind. Then press and hold the crown and screw back in until you feel resistance.

A full wind will provide a power reserve of 42 hours.

If you use the quick-set date (crown pulled out one stop) or wind the time backwards (crown pulled out to the second stop) between 8pm and 3am then you run the risk of damaging the quick set date mechanism - an expensive repair. If you wind time forwards you will not have any problems.

The date will always change around an indicated time of midnight, if you change time zones just make sure that you are not between 8pm and 3am indicated time at any point during the process. In other words if you fly from the east coast of the US to the west and have to turn time back 3 hours, wait until at least 6am.

If the watch stops in the 'danger' zone of 8pm - 3am simply wind time forward out of the danger zone and then adjust the dat if necessary.

Cheers Roffensian

Thanks for your help; I did charge the power reserve up last night. I did notice that the date did not change at 12:00 midnight. To resolve this do I wind the time forward so the watch moves forward 12 hours, so then tonight at 12:00 midnight the date will change.

Just to clarify if I need to set the date and time in the 'Danger' Zone (If the power runs out) between 8PM - 12:00 AM, I can wind time forward and change the date forward without harming the watch??. Is it right that you will only mess up the quick date if you wind the watch movement backwards??

Cheers again.

It sounds like the watch is out by 12 hours, so yes - wind time forwards 12 hours and all should be good.

Just to be clear the danger zone is 8pm - 3am, not 8pm - midnight. You are correct, if the watch stops at (say) 11pm then just wind time forwards until at least 3am and then you can use the quick set date. Problems only happen if you use the quick set date or wind time backwards.

Roff has replied with everything you need to know, but if you want any more info on these subjects then have a look using the search function near the top right of the screen as there has been numerous threads in the past that address both of these queries.

Welcome to BreitlingSource by the way!

_________________
Driver8

Site Moderator

I did this ones when I purchased my first seriuos watch. CA..I tried for like 5 minutes before I realized that I´d done something bad. The quick-set works fine and nothing seems to be wrong. Wonder how much damage I did to the mechanism though...hurts in my heart to think about it Wonder what the cost for my next service will be.....and how do you tell If you broke something...?

Have a nice sleep.

_________________
"Nice from a far, but far from nice"


Breitling "pre" Chrono-Matic 1969
Omega Seamaster 300 1969
Rolex Submariner 16800 1982 (birthyear watch)
IWC Aquatimer 3548 2008

+Misc

You haven't done anything too serious because the date change would not be working properly. You may have bent some teeth resulting in a need for a new wheel, not expensive and the movement will be disassembled for servicing anyway so not much additional cost.

Sounds good to hear. Now I can sleep good at night knowing my CA is only semi-handicaped

Thanks!

_________________
"Nice from a far, but far from nice"


Breitling "pre" Chrono-Matic 1969
Omega Seamaster 300 1969
Rolex Submariner 16800 1982 (birthyear watch)
IWC Aquatimer 3548 2008

+Misc