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Broken mainspring on 2.5 year old Blackbird
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Author:  Ace McDuck [ Sat Apr 07, 2012 9:43 am ]
Post subject:  Broken mainspring on 2.5 year old Blackbird
I just dropped my Blackbird off at my local AD in Toronto because it stopped working a week ago. Their on-site repair man opened it up and said the mainspring is broken so it's being sent to the Canadian office for a repair estimate. I'm not happy that they're even considering that I should pay for this - although the warranty is 2 years, why would a mainspring break? Is this common?

Has anyone experienced premature breakage, and how reasonable is Breitling with a situation like this? If they want payment are there any other service options, or am I locked in to Breitling corp pricing?

TIA
Author:  Roffensian [ Sat Apr 07, 2012 10:59 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Broken mainspring on 2.5 year old Blackbird
It takes a heck of a lot of effort or a faulty part to break a mainspring. Mainsprings in automatics are not actually under that much stress as they are only fixed at the arbor end and this is the first time that I have heard of one breaking - I would love to see the nature of the break.

At the end of the day, even if the part was faulty, it's outside of the warranty period so not at all surprised that you are being asked to pay - the flip side is that at least it defers the service window for another 5 - 7 years - small comfort I know.

You don't really have much choice but to use Breitling service as no one else has access to official parts. The good news is that I have never had any problems with Watch Service Centre of Canada (the Canadian service centre in Toronto).
Author:  sracer [ Sat Apr 07, 2012 4:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Broken mainspring on 2.5 year old Blackbird
It will be interesting to see how this turns out - Breitling has the opportunity to make a long term customer or a "never again" customer in this situation.
I had the same thing with BMW a while back: bought a used 7 from a dealer with 40K miles, still under warranty.Dealer serviced from new, I always took it to the dealer, it was a beautiful car, in perfect condition. At 52K it ate an auto transmission, bad clutch or something. (50K warranty) BMW basically gave me the middle finger, "we'll fix at a discount, you must have abused the car." Not a chance, it was my family car, I had and have race cars to abuse. They fixed it for $3K, I drove it from their dealership to an Infiniti dealership and traded it in. Last BMW I will own; I have another German car in my garage, but not a BMW. Stupid when companies play the short game on these things.
Author:  TomP [ Sun Apr 08, 2012 1:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Broken mainspring on 2.5 year old Blackbird
sracer wrote:
It will be interesting to see how this turns out - Breitling has the opportunity to make a long term customer or a "never again" customer in this situation.


I agree. You would hope that a high-end company would consider a "goodwill" fix out of warranty for an extraordinary issue of this sort.
Author:  onewatchnut [ Mon Apr 09, 2012 5:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Broken mainspring on 2.5 year old Blackbird
Roffensian wrote:
It takes a heck of a lot of effort or a faulty part to break a mainspring.


I have seen them break at the arbor on rare occasions. That's the smallest diameter and the greatest stress point. I suppose the bridle could separate from the spring, but I've never seen one do that.

Hopefully, there was no damage to the train from the recoil. That's where the majority of the cost could be if it broke in a fully wound condition.

Since the white alloy springs are supposed to be "unbreakable". I would hope the service center would replace it free of charge. As a matter of course, I replace the old steel mainsprings with the white alloy ones. If one came back to my bench after that, I would replace it free of charge.
Author:  Ace McDuck [ Wed Apr 11, 2012 6:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Broken mainspring on 2.5 year old Blackbird
Thanks for the input. I'm waiting patiently for the call from the service center.

I am looking for a second high end watch so the outcome of this transaction will definitely be a deciding factor on whether I purchase another Breitling or move to a more durable brand. It has already left me with a bad taste in my mouth. If they figure that this is due to some fault on my part (read - pay for repairs rather than replace a defective component), I'm not sure I want to continue with a product that only has a 2-3 year lifespan, particularly at this price point. My 35 year old Citizen still keeps perfect time and it was only $100 back then.
Author:  Driver8 [ Thu Apr 12, 2012 4:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Broken mainspring on 2.5 year old Blackbird
Ace McDuck wrote:
Thanks for the input. I'm waiting patiently for the call from the service center.

I am looking for a second high end watch so the outcome of this transaction will definitely be a deciding factor on whether I purchase another Breitling or move to a more durable brand. It has already left me with a bad taste in my mouth. If they figure that this is due to some fault on my part (read - pay for repairs rather than replace a defective component), I'm not sure I want to continue with a product that only has a 2-3 year lifespan, particularly at this price point. My 35 year old Citizen still keeps perfect time and it was only $100 back then.

Sorry for your hassles here, but I wouldn't base your decision on looking for a "more durable brand". A broken mainspring is rare, but it's no more or no less likely to happen to any mechanical watch irrespective of brand. In this instance you were just unlucky I think. Bear in mind the BB runs a movement that is essentially just an ETA 2892 underneath - i.e. a tried and tested movement that's been around for 40 years or so and found in many mid and reasonably high-end watches, so IMO to talk about Breitling's durability compared to other brands doesn't really come into it in terms of the mainspring.

Of course, Breitling customer service is something else entirely. If they don't provide you with good CS, then certainly vote with your feet and find another brand..... and I'd support you 100% in that. Customer service is something very dear to my heart and not something I think that high-end brands should scrimp on.

Keep us informed. :thumbsup:
Author:  Ace McDuck [ Thu May 03, 2012 8:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Broken mainspring on 2.5 year old Blackbird
Thought I'd post an update. Today my wife received a call from the dealer - the watch will cost $700 to repair, and they pointedly told her that a new leather strap is $175 or a croc strap is $550 for my watch. Why, you might ask - was the original one in disrepair? Not at all. When I purchased the watch with a Breitling leather strap just over 2 years ago, it became rank after 4 months - it stunk to the point that I couldn't wear it. When I called this same dealer about that issue they said there's nothing they could do about a rancid strap, sorry not covered. So rather than invest another $175 for a strap with a 4 month lifespan, I purchased a croc strap from Strapped for Time, at a much lower price point, which I've been wearing without issue for the past few years.

Now, I may be reading too much into this, but I think they've just told me to pay $700 in repairs because I didn't purchase their replacement strap 2 years ago. There's no reason for them to tell my wife the strap prices, the one on the watch is in perfect repair (or at least it was when I took it in).

Driver8, while I acknowledge your statement about rarity, this is the second incident with Breitling where something has gone wrong with my watch and they've chosen to take the cash grab approach to customer service. One would expect that a "rare occurrence" could be dealt with in a way that would get them positive press, and keep a customer. I would be foolish to invest more money in a product that has, in my case, proven to be less than reliable with poor customer service. I have far cheaper automatic movement watches that have lasted much longer than 2 years, heck I have a 37 year old Gruen manual wind watch that still works. And to ask a dumb question - since, unlike my aforementioned Gruen, I have no control over how tightly the mainspring is wound, what would I have done to cause a mainspring to break? Doesn't it seem that this was more than likely a production flaw?

I will be talking with them myself tomorrow but unless the outcome of that conversation is dramatically different than anything that's transpired to date, there's no way I'll invest any more of my money in Breitling product.

A final thought, this particular AD is a chain in the Toronto area that has no competition. Maybe Breitling should consider licensing someone else to put a bit of competitive drive into their service.

P.S. A week ago I received an email from them stating that their new movements will have a 5 year warranty - the Breitling seal of confidence. I think I'll unsubscribe from their newsletter. :poke:
Author:  sharkman [ Thu May 03, 2012 9:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Broken mainspring on 2.5 year old Blackbird
That sucks. Is the AD also the official Breitling repair center for Canada? If not, I would move it up the chain. It's one thing for an dealer to screw you, but quite another For Breitling themselves.

I doubt the strap has anything to do with the price quote. Sounds like they are charging for a full chrono service plus replacement of the hands. It shouldn't need a service interval yet and I understand why they would want to do it because they will be taking the movement apart anyway, but should not be charging you for it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Author:  steelfishuk [ Sat May 05, 2012 3:54 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Broken mainspring on 2.5 year old Blackbird
I agree 100% with Sharkman, bypass the AD and go direct to Breitling. On any item that you have spent a lot of money on, it must be fit for purpose.
For it to brake on such a major component of the watch through no fault of yours, even if it’s out side the warranty, there must be a moral if not a legal obligation for Breitling to put the watch right at no cost to you.
I realise you are not in Europe but Breitling are. The fact is that a two-year guarantee applies for the sale of all consumer goods everywhere in the EU ( Directive 1999/44/EC ). In some countries, this may be more, and some manufacturers also choose to offer a longer warranty period. Who knows Breitling may be one of these companies and will honour this directive over there.
I hope you have a positive out come.
Author:  Roffensian [ Sat May 05, 2012 4:07 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Broken mainspring on 2.5 year old Blackbird
Thought that I had posted here earlier, but I guess not :huh

The cost for the service is not unreasonable in and of itself, but that's kinda secondary under the circumstances. The Breitling distributor (Grigoros) owns both the service centre and the La Swiss chain, no changes are going to be coming there. That said, I have found that the people at the service centre are pretty helpful so I would go into the service place on Hayden Street and ask them to explain the cost breakdown. You might also want to ask about how a supposedly 'unbreakable' mainspring managed to break.
Author:  Ace McDuck [ Fri May 18, 2012 8:12 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Broken mainspring on 2.5 year old Blackbird
So after a number of unfruitful calls and promises of call backs that never happened, I finally connected with someone who could answer my question about the service at the dealer. As it turns out, Breitling is charging me $763 for a complete overhaul. She couldn't explain anything and wouldn't comment on her tech's statement that the mainspring was broken. I'm waiting to hear back from someone else at LaSwiss to get a bit more detail, but apparently there was no mention of broken mainspring on the estimate.

My experience with this dealer is not great. Their people are either outright rude or show no desire to apply any basic customer service principles in their interactions with customers. I mentioned today that it's taking quite a while to connect on this estimate. This woman actually pointed out that I "missed" calling them back last week - that was her explanation for why it's taking so long. In reality, I've been calling and waiting on call backs for over a month now including this past Monday (they would call me Tues/Wed because their technical person was off - never happened). On top of that, they won't deal with me when I call - it's always "I'll call you back in an hour" - you'd think that after a month of this, they'd actually have the information close enough that putting me on hold for a minute or two would suffice. This is the downside of a monopoly, Breitling should take note - they've now made a negative customer.

So, what would a newly overhauled Blackbird go for? I have 2 leather straps - 1 Breitling black leather that I would throw out, but someone without a nose may want to use, 1 aftermarket black croc, and 1 solid steel aftermarket pilot band.
Author:  fasfrank [ Fri May 18, 2012 9:51 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Broken mainspring on 2.5 year old Blackbird
You think you got robbed I have this new avenger with one of the chrono push button stuck and was qouted 1000.00 +
This seems minor compared to main spring you had,don't you think.
Author:  Ace McDuck [ Fri May 18, 2012 11:21 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Broken mainspring on 2.5 year old Blackbird
fasfrank wrote:
You think you got robbed I have this new avenger with one of the chrono push button stuck and was qouted 1000.00 +

I think you're getting robbed. How old is your watch - is it still under warranty? Does your quote include an overhaul? Maybe that's the price for a push button + overhaul.

fasfrank wrote:
This seems minor compared to main spring you had,don't you think.

I'm more annoyed that they're ignoring the mainspring and want me to pay for an overhaul - just in case you don't know what an overhaul entails, part of it is to polish the case and clean/polish the crystal. Completely unnecessary, my watch is immaculate, and even if it was a bit scratched up, it's my call to have that done, not theirs. Do you get your drivetrain overhauled and car painted when you go in to get your brakes fixed?? And on top of that, they're rude and don't return calls, then blame me when I ask why it's taking so long to figure this out.
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