The Breitling Watch Source Forums

So the story goes, I just bought a CA Titanium from an old family acquaintance and am completely impressed and happy with it in all respects. Looks good for dress, not too flashy at work, light, doesn't have batteries or need to be wound. Black face white dials can be read in an instant from any angle...just perfect.
Christmas day I wear my TAG Regatta because my wife bought IT as an early present so I wanted to wear it for the day.
At the end of the day, I go to put it on the shelf and see that my CA has stopped at 9:35 PM.
I wind, I shake, I listen, try to feel the ever so slight buzz, nothing.

Now my father has never been able to wear chronos because they would quit working after a short period of time, usually 1 to 6 months. No matter what brand or quality, how much they cost, none of it mattered, they would all quit. I remember seeing literally a drawer full of non working watches. Until the electrics came on scene, he could not wear a watch. He had been told something about his body was magnetizing them somehow????

Anyway, I had forgot this peculiarity over the years up until my Breitling quit after two weeks of wearing it every day.
I don't slowly head to the north when I walk or attract black iron at the beach but maybe this is hereditary.
Has anyone ever heard of this?
Will the AD give me an assessment as to what's wrong and a failure analysis after repairs are made?

Thanks in advance for any ideas on this.

Rick

Cursed? Probably not, as curses and other fantasy crap is just BS (and I dont mean Bretling Source with BS)

However it would be interesting to hear from an AD what is wrong with your watch... you will most certainly get a report on what they have repaired when you get it back.

BTW, I find your story very amusing and kind "x-files"-ish - did your father ever have any other problems with any other machinery?

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Blue Baton Super Avenger
Black Avenger Seawolf

I don't have a clue either but waiting to hear more about this

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You hear occasional stories about people who can't wear automatic watches and how it's something to do with the electric fields generated by their bodies, but I've never seen anything reliably documented, and sure it's not hereditary!

Let's see what the AD says first, but if it's a magnetising issue I would expect different symptoms and would expect the cause to be proximity to a magnet when the watch is stored - cell phone, electric motor, etc.

I actually was tyhe same way when I was younger. During my teens and very early 20's I could not wear a nice mechanical watch. They would stop never to run again. Happened to a rolex from my grandfather, an IWC willed from my grandfather (that one hurt, by the way ) and a Raymond Weil given by my now wife. ADs serviced them and all said there was nothing they could see that was wrong. Sent them out, same answer. I stopped wearing good stuff and just stuck to cheap stuff like Sectors and Citizens. About 3 years ago my step brother was leaving the country for an extended mission trip and was storing all of his stuff, asked if I wanted to borrow his Navi while he was away (as I was always admiring it)? Having kind of forgotten about my "curse" I graciously accepted. Wore it for 2 years almost non-stop. It did fine. I have NO IDEA if the "curse" has stopped (I think so) or if Breitlings are just superior to the other brands (possible, but seems unlikely, we are talking about a Rolex and an IWC). Have had my own Chronomat for 4 months of 3 day a week wear and it is running like a top. So the direct answer to the post is, yes. I had it, seem to have outgrown it, but will likely not buy a non-Breitling just in case I still have it and the Breitlings can just take it. I realize this offers no solutions, but may at least let you know htat you are not insane or physiologically disturbed.

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Chronomat, Steel/Gold, MOP Dial, 2-tone band (2008)
Super Avenger Black Baton Dial (2009)
Bentley B04 GMT Silver Dial (2013)
Avenger Blacksteel Baton Dial (2014)

The only thing that can come to my mind is to ask if you ever wound the watch? Just because it is automatic doesn't mean you can't run out of power. Even at daily wear, if you manage to automatically wind it less than the power consumed, it will run out of power after a while.

Magnetizing the watch should get it to run faster, not to stop.

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Collection: http://s540.photobucket.com/albums/gg32 ... mview=grid

I think we are using "magnetizing" here as a garbage can statement for some sort of unusual electrical or magnetic ,or something, anomoly, that is not well defined, that causes this circumstance. However, I am interested in the reason why applying a magnetic field to a mechanical watch that is filled with magnetically active metals would speed it up, rather than bind it in a field? Please share your thoughts Aleister? Sounds like you posess specific knowledge of the matter.

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Chronomat, Steel/Gold, MOP Dial, 2-tone band (2008)
Super Avenger Black Baton Dial (2009)
Bentley B04 GMT Silver Dial (2013)
Avenger Blacksteel Baton Dial (2014)

Only that all cases of magnetizing I've heard of (and they are plenty), people have by accident had their watch in a magnetic field and that have caused the watch to run considerably faster. Also the other way around, all problems I've heard with watches running way too fast has been due to magnetizing. The nearest AD should be able to de-magnetize the watch in a minute.

Exactly how a magnetic field can cause this I can't answer (at least not right now, at 11pm Japan time and without more research) but hopefully Watchmakeress or someone of the AD-people could answer that.

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Collection: http://s540.photobucket.com/albums/gg32 ... mview=grid

I dropped the watch off at the local AD and they also tried to wind it with a no go. The owner said he would have his watchmaker take a look and call me. Watchmaker calls and asks "what's wrong with the watch?" I said it not running and he says "do you mean it's not keeping time?" I laughed and asked "tell me it's working fine" He says yea, running now.
So I tell him the story and now it seems to be an intermittent problem (which *can be* a harder problem to diagnose).
He asked if it was in Warranty - no.
It did have a good size ding near one of the ears that may have indicated a drop (didn't know when it happened) and after some discussion the thing to do would be to send it off to BUSA and have them do a complete service. They will call with the Estimate / Quote and proceed after a verbal OK.
I told him that was fine as it needs to be repaired regardless.
He said they are closed till 7-Jan. so it may take a while. This was 26-Dec.

Fast forward to 26-Jan.
I've not heard from anybody so I call the AD and give the Manager the story...he'll have the watchmaker call me as soon as he relays it.
Watchmaker calls and asks if anyone had called? I say no, haven't heard from anybody since our last talk.
He says well, um the watch has been repaired, returned and is at our store waiting to be picked up.

So I go down to the retail store and pick it up, everyone is super apologetic for not getting a verbal OK for repairs and all.
I'm going that's OK it had to be done, we talked of the expense so there were no surprises here.
BTW, they did a complete rebuild of the 7750 movement to repair the intermittent failure, polished it up to look like new and gave everything a one year Warranty, and to say sorry for the snafu, took off the shipping charges ($50 buck).

So right now all is well, I guess time will tell if my magnetism / dielectric chemical composition / alien bloodline or whatever will stop the watch but I'm betting on it being dropped as to what the problem was ...so is Breighting USA.

Nice ending to a hair-pulling experience. Congrats on getting it back

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As to why magetization will speed up a watch - well I believe its causes a tiny interactive force between adjacent coils of the balance spring. This has the same effect as if the spring length is momentarily, slightly shortened, which increases the oscillation frequency, hence the watch runs faster.

Couldn't have said it better myself!

My day job is as a design engineer/technical author. I know little about watches compared to you, but I'm learning

Cool, that actually makes sense. Thanks.

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Chronomat, Steel/Gold, MOP Dial, 2-tone band (2008)
Super Avenger Black Baton Dial (2009)
Bentley B04 GMT Silver Dial (2013)
Avenger Blacksteel Baton Dial (2014)

I just bought a Breitling AS (2-11-09), and my watch is 1 minute ahead over a week.
To me it is kind of hard to swallow that a watch over $4000 is sensative for these kind of things. I bought a Breitling to get swiss precision. If I want a watch for the looks and I don't care about a minute a week I would have bought a good fake one. One reason at the time for me to stay away from quartz was that everytime I had to replace the battery I had to pay for testing the water resistance. Now it looks like I have to get my watch adjusted or for some reason I'm magnetic possesed. I work with computers on a daily basis which makes me wonder if the strong magnet in the hard drive does this to the watch. Still I think it shouldn't matter in these days of age.
Please let me know what you think. Am I to anal about this?

Koen