The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I bought a B01 when they first came out. I have a decent collection of watches so it gets a lot of safe time. I've worn the watch maybe 40 times (all just for daylight hours or events) and it's still in 99% condition. I started to wear the watch more often right around the time of the warranty to expire. My AD gave me an extra year warranty so I'm still covered just not by Breitiling. I'm a nerdy watch guy and I keep a log of +/- time on my watches. I've also been doing tests lately to make sure of the behaviors I'm seeing on my B01. With that being said, let me get down to what's been happening and what I feel is slightly off about the watch.

I wore it one day and put in my winder (Wolf) for the next. I used it the second day and eventually I wanted to time something. I started the chrono and the minute totalizer was stuck on trying to get to one minute. I stopped it, reset it and tried again...it worked. I carried on and let the chrono run for the day and all was well. Used it one more time off the winder and then back in the safe it went.

Next time I pull it out, I wind it up and wear it as usual. In the winder it goes until next time. When I take it out I do a tare to check for inaccuracies. It's running -5 seconds a day - I'm floored - it hasn't ever lost so much time in a day. I check the chrono again and all is well there but the tolerance has changed. Still in COSC so I carry on. Warranty has now expired but I still have faith. Back in the safe for rotation it goes.

Next time I use its tolerance has gotten even worse. Now it's at -7 seconds a day. I'm alarmed now and make a call to my AD. I really don't have time to bring it up there at this point and I don't want to wait extra for the holiday and up coming holiday so I decide to wait. Back in the safe it goes and I carry with my rotation.

I use it quickly again because it's just digging in my mind that something's wrong. I continue to use it and log the inaccuracies. I don't safe it this time, instead I leave it out and on one of my winders (they're all Wolf and JIC, the winder is set properly). I am appalled immediately at what I see. Now it's running -9 seconds a day. So I start testing different situations for the watch.

-I let it sit in the winder for a week - It lost 10 seconds a day.
-I wore it every day out then to the winder - It lost the same just about.
-I decide to see how it will work if I leave the chrono on constantly - A better result of -3.2 seconds a day.
-I wear it like it's my daily for 3 days with no winder at night. It lost 7.6 seconds a day.
-I just let it sit and it lost right back to the 10 seconds a day mark.
Now were at today...

I Goggle "Chronomat 44 B01 problems" and I see a plethora of results. I'm really alarmed now. After reading some of the problems of skipping, hands not working properly with seconds and such I set it on another series of tests.

-I notice my hands aren't exactly keeping the precise second total on the minute hand.
-I then check my chrono again and I notice my minute totalizer is jumping to the next minute at 59 seconds.
-I then decide to check the date function and I notice another problem. The next day rotates at precisely 4 minutes early. No matter if I let the watch do it by keeping time or I do it by advancing the hours.

I must say, I am really surprised that this is happening to my B01. All the hype about the in-house movement and the time it took to develop...I just don't get it.

Any ideas or thoughts are very appreciated. Does anyone else notice these things about their B01? Could someone check to see if their date wheel does the same by advancing 4 minutes before the next day? Also could someone check to see if their minute totalizer does the same by advancing another minute at 59 seconds.

Thank you forum, Todd

Alright, several things there. Let's get the 'non-problems' out of the way first.

Seconds and minute hand not synching is caused by free play in the running train (which has to exist for the watch to run). It can be adjusted, but it will come back. I've heard from people here previously how x watch has never done it, but in reality they all do it to some extent.

The date changing at 4 minutes to midnight isn't really a problem either - it's a simple adjustment. You could argue that it should be better, and I won't deny that (although personally that would be close enough), but it's not an actual 'problem'.

Now, the real issues. The chronograph jumping / not advancing has been reported numerous times and does seem to be a problem with the movement, that's going to need Breitling attention to fix and believe me, they ar familiar with the problem. Not sure where you stand in warranty on that - B01 repairs have to be handled by Breitling service directly, not an AD but presumably the AD will cover any cost as they provided the additional year of warranty.

The time loss is a bit more concerning, in particular because it seems to be getting worse. If it was outside of COSC but consistent then a simple regulation would solve it, but the increasing time loss suggests another issue - it could be a million things. I'm not surprised that the watch runs faster with the chronograph engaged - more friction means less power reaching the balance wheel resulting in reduced amplitude and increased rate.

Bottom line - it needs attention and the complete documentation of the issues should help Breitling to fix.

It came out of warranty this October. I had mine specially configured at the time and got it straight out of the box from Breitling themselves. I opened the box with my AD when it came in.

Should I tell my AD to send it to Breitling? I know they use a local guy who is very reputable to do repairs and service.

As far as the varied +/- a day, COSC allows for +/- 6 seconds a day from tolerance...how do I say this because it's right at the edge of what's acceptable. Even though it never lost any time before. The worst was -3 a day until recently.

I know it needs help and it will have some very soon but I just want to have my "ish' straight. Some of the stories I've read...wow. I don't wanna get into 3 fixes and not have it fixed.

COSC allows for -4 / +6.

You DO NOT want anyone except Breitling working on it. Breitling will not allow their AD based watchmakers to touch this movement, and control parts accordingly.

But my warranty is with my AD at this point. Do I insist that they send it to Breitling? What if they refuse?

You insist that they send it to Breitling. They are the people who should be refusing to work on a B01 movement because they are not authorised to do so. If they refuse to send it to BReitling then send it yourself and accept that there's no warranty on it - that's a much better option than having an AD work on an inhouse movement that they aren't trained on and can't get parts for.

Since we're so close to the holidays, I guess I'll wait until the new year, I am really bummed.

Roffensian, thank you for your time.

Anybody else wanna chime in with their experience of a 44 B01?

Roff's got it covered. All correct what he said.

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+2.
Best,
Ron

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Toddski,

I'm sorry to hear about your problems. I'm going to assume your google search came up with a bunch of my threads from this forum, as I've seemed to have the worst luck with the B01 movement. What Roff told you is entirely correct. The ONLY place currently authorized to work on the B01 movement is Breitling. My B01 hasn't been back since August, but this is what I was told my Breitling at that time, so I assume it's still the case.

I own two B01 equipped watches and both took an unusually long time to "set in," so to speak. The movement would gain/lose seconds all over the place for the first few MONTHS . . . not weeks, and I never let my watch stop the entire time. It never got outside of COSC specs, so there is clearly something else going on with yours. Right now, my Chronomat will gain 1.5 sec per day while my Navi loses about the same, so they're well within spec and gain/lose this much time religiously.

Regarding your "problem" with the minute hand jumping at 59 seconds, both my watches do this and Roff explained why. It's nothing to worry about. I've experienced two legitimate problems with my Chronomat B01 (purchased in July 2009) that you should be on alert for. First, my sweeping chronograph hand would go from moving in 1/4 sec increments to 1/2 second increments at a certain place on the dial and then resume 1/4 sec increments after a few seconds. Basically, it looked like the hand was skipping. After four trips to BUSA for the same problem, they finally replaced the entire movement. That issue is remedied, but on occasion, the minute counter will jump to "1" upon initiation of the chronograph; it should not move to "1" until completion of the first revolution. It needs to go back to Breitling, but I haven't sent it back yet. For all my troubles, I was half expecting John Travolta to pull up at my house with his 707 and say "let's go for a ride!" but clearly that's not possible anymore.

My Navi 01 has a potential problem that I'm watching. Upon starting the chronograph, the sweeping hand actually moves backwards ever so slightly before moving forwards. I can't observe this behavior in my Chronomat. This isn't enough for me to send it in just yet, but I'm going to keep an eye on it.

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