The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Need advise. I got mine Cockpit B49350 as a gift and I loved it. It worked fine for the first two years than one day after 12 hours not in use it stopped. I manually winded (40X), few days later watched stopped again after about 12 hours not used. I also notice that it started to gain time, about 1 min/day. I send it for repair. Paid for complete overhaul took it back and watch still does not self wind and gains up to 1 min per day. Since then watch has been at certified Breitling repair shop twice and the problem of watch gaining time and stopping after 12 hours not used remains not resolved. Now the watch is at the repair shop for the fourth time. The folks promised to do overhaul again, I am keeping my fingers crossed.
Did this happend to anybody else?

There could be any number of things causing it, what worries me more is the failure to resolve. The obvious problems would be dirt or lack of lubrication, both of which would be fixed by a service. It's logical to assume that the two problems are related, but I'm not sure whether that's the case.

I have been crowing on about the wonders of my new Super Avenger 563....
But its started to lose time...........not a lot.....but what do those Breitling owners in the know expect of their pieces after using them for a while ?.......what is the acceptable time loss with a Super Avenger 2 months old ?........of course when you are as new to Breitling as the SA you own, you automatically put it to the test ....i use an atomic clock i have installed on my desktop....so the exact time to a second is on view...........i now lose 15 seconds in 12 hours.....is this an acceptable level?.............if it is not can the watch be regulated or whatever they do with them?.........it would be interesting to know!.....

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SUPER AVENGER 563
BLUE DIAL
SILVER SUBS
PRO 2 BRACELET
]

Thirty seconds a day is outside the cosc specs of -4/+6 a day that the watch is certified - way outside. Several things to consider though before you dance your way to the AD. First, are you wearing the watch enough to keep it wound and have you tried giving it a good 40 turn wind then checking the accuracy? Second, are you sure that the atomic clock on your computer updates in real time or does it use a time server that only updates once a week/month etc? Sometimes the clock on a computer can be off it it is not synchronized on a fairly frequent basis.

If you give it a good wind and check the computer for accuracy and it's still off as you say then I would suggest a trip to the AD.

I'm starting to feel redundant

You should feel honoured. All that I know about watches I learned from you.

Roffensian..........dont feel redundant.......its just that bit too far to nip on the bus to pay you a visit........so long distance communication will have to surfice......you are revered even in the UK for your input ..........

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SUPER AVENGER 563
BLUE DIAL
SILVER SUBS
PRO 2 BRACELET
]

Like Roff said, it probably has to do with lack of lubrication. Did the person who gave it to you as a gift bought it new or did the watch stayed too long at the store before being bought? Based on AD info, all Breitling watches are made manually and individually and are long tested before being released to the customer. So, you must be really unlucky (AD says) to have one that encounters the problems you're having. Did the repair shop make a full service or did they just look at the basic problem indicated by you? I find it unbelievable they returned your watch before making the proper testing themselves and before making sure the problem is resolved. Even if that means they keep your watch a little longer.

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- This is Ghost Rider requesting a fly-by. - Negative Ghost Rider. The pattern is full.

After verifying the atomic clock on my desk top is using real time..........i now realise what a dumb SOB i really am......the SA is gaining not losing time..........in a 24 hr period its gaining 5-7 seconds.....so i suppose thats not too bad...........but i did have wonderful expectations for a long time re the Breitling brand and didnt deviate from it..........the manual date change and now the time losing it has rubbed the edge off my expectations after paying £3000 am i expecting too much?
Can these pieces be set to keep dead time ? can any watch keep dead time for that matter or is it just a myth..........do you guys who are avid Breitling fans accept these small hiccups as the norm and get on with the rest.....or is anyone like me too fussy?
When and how will i ever qualify for a "full ling badge" ........instead of plain

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SUPER AVENGER 563
BLUE DIAL
SILVER SUBS
PRO 2 BRACELET
]

Honestly, yes.

If you want a Swiss mechanical watch that doesn't require manual adjustment for the number of days in the month then you are going to have to spend more - cheapest Breitling is the Montbrillant Olympus. If you want a watch that can also handle leap years as well then you are going to be into five figures - well in with Breitling.

In terms of accuracy, well as has been said hundreds of times, your watch will take a whiel to settle and then it should be in COSC specs of -4 / +6 seconds a day, or 99.99% accuracy. That's the current standard for Swiss watches and fewer than 1% of Swiss watches have COSC certificates. A couple of brands are trying to tighten those specs slightly with in house testing, but very few at anything close to the $3,000 price point.

I spent many years in the field of metrology. One of the things I did was design a receiver to synchronize a rubidium beam oscillator to the cesium beam stabilized LORAN-C ground wave at 100 kHz. It is a very stable signal. The purpose was to track the error of the rubidium oscillator against the cesium which is an order of magnitude more stable.

The result was that, no matter how much you tried, the rubidium could not be adjusted to absolute stability. Now, we are talking about much less than a second a year here.

So. after telling you much more than you asked for, the short answer is no, nothing will keep dead time.

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1809 Cosmonaute
1903 Navi
Navi Olympus
Super Avenger

No such thing as "dead time". It's all relative people!

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“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.” - Albert Einstein