The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hello all. This is my first post ever. I have owned a B-2 since 2002, and just recently purchased an Avenger chronograph in May this year. Both watches were purchased at authorized dealers.

I love the way the Avenger looks. Recently I started noticing the small chronograph hour hand (not the regular hour hand) does not correspond to the small chronograph minute hand at times. Eg. the small minute hand points to 30 (toward top of watch), but the small hour hand points to somewhere between 2 and 2:30 - I would say right around 2:15. Is this common or is it my watch?

What this does makes it pretty confusing. I'm a pilot and uses the chronograph a lot. So here I am, looking down at my watch, and the small minute hand says 15, but the small hour hand points to just shy of 2:00. So I thought it must be 1:45. It's all good until the next time I looked at it again, the small minute hand points to 30, but the small hour hand now points to 2:15. Huh? Now I started second guessing the watch. The indication doesn't even make sense.

My B-2 never did this in the +10 years I have owned it - and I almost wore it daily.

Any ideas?

BTW, I just checked and the 2 chronograph hands start out just fine. When they are reset, the small minute hand points to 30 (ie. top of watch), and the small hour hand to 12 (also top of watch). Dead on.

Then once the first 30 minutes have elapsed, both hands are precisely where they are supposed to be. Also dead on.

It's just that I noticed the problem at around the second hour mark. I'm pretty sure I have noticed this problem on the Avenger before, but managed to "guess" at the elapsed time. But certain combinations of the 2 hands' positions make the elapsed time really confusing (like the 2:15 example I had cited).

There has to be some tolerance in the running train to prevent the movement from binding, and that can translate itself to some slack in the hands. If the hands start out correctly then there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the movement and it must be this slack that you are witnessing - it's not physically possible for the hour hand to advance slower than the minute hand.

However, the movement can (and should) be adjusted to ensure that the slack / play is appropriate and that's what it sounds like the issue is. Should be a relatively easy warranty fix, but definitely needs Breitling attention.

Welcome to BreitlingSource.

Thank you, Roffensian. I'm in Canada also - just updated my profile.

My gut feel is also that there is nothing wrong with the watch itself. I had some bad experience with my B-2 after it was serviced - to the point where you know there is definitely something not quite right with it. But that's a whole different topic altogether ...

What do you know? I tried it just now again - let the chronograph run starting from 0:00. And the problem is no longer there - I checked about every half hour and both small hands agreed with each other all the way up to 2:30 at which point I stopped the test. Strange. Not sure if it made a difference that when I had the problem, about 10 hours had elapsed between 0:00 and 2:15. I know it shouldn't make a difference, but just another piece of the puzzle.

Anyway, all is good now. I'm glad I don't have to send the watch anywhere and can continue to enjoy it =-)

Spoke too soon. The same problem appeared the subsequent time I used the chronograph. See attached photo - how am I supposed to tell whether the elapsed time is 2:00 or 2:30? It definitely can't be 2:15 since the small second hand is pointed straight up to 30.

How can a chronograph behave so differently across two back-to-back use?

Because there is too much play in the train.......

OK, thanks. I think I'll hang on to the watch for a while longer before sending it in. Will just have to live with it in the mean time ...