The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi all,

My Navitimer Chronometre has suddenly started gaining about 30 mins per 12 hours. I noticed it yesterday and reset the time. Did the same before bed and it had gained 30/40 mins.

Any ideas??

Thanks in advance.

Sudden gains of that order are often due to it becoming magnetised. If so any good watch dealer should simply be able to demagnetise it.

Yep, sudden dramatic change is magnetism 99% of the time. Figure out where the watch could have been to get magnetised and don't put it there again! As TomP says, it's very simple to fix - takes about 2 seconds.

Great, thanks. How could it have happened? I've had omega auto watches before and never heard of this?

Exposure to a magnetic field. There has been some lively debate in the past about what might be powerful enough but speakers are a common cause in the home or a lot of equipment in healthcare environments.

Ok, so I took it to a watch specialist who said he could demagnatise it but when I returned he said he 'couldn't get into the watch'. I asked why he'd need to do this as I understood it to be a simpple procedure but has said that his equioment wasn't suitable!

Think I need to try somewhere else..

You certainly DO need to try somewhere else as demagnetising a watch doesn't need the caseback opening at all! It sounds like that "specialist" didn't have a clue what he was doing!

And in reply to an earlier post of yours, pretty much any mechanical watch can be magentised if exposed to a suitably strong magnetic field ; it's not a "Breitling thing" by any stretch of the imagination. (Yes, there are some watches that are more resistant than others due to either the use of specifically antimagnetic materials, or soft iron inner-cases etc, but basically it can happy to almost any watch).

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Just ask a watchmaker if he or she has a demagnetiser. If they do then all that needs to happen is that the entire watch is passed through it (most are open cylinders) while it is turned on. I think that I paid about $20 for mine so it's not exactly specialist equipment.

Thanks folks. Now to find another dealer who knows what he's doing!