The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I'm sure I mentioned many moons ago about the Helson Buccaneer I ordered.

Well I just thought I'd pop an update here on both my experience so far with both the watch and the company.

The Bucc has been absolutely flawless since I got it. It keeps the most awesome time of any watch I've ever owned, I'm talking less than 1 second per day loss from it's ETA 2893-2 movement, and that was straight out of the box!

The hands line up perfectly, when the second hand hits 12 o'clock you can be sure that the minute hand is still spot on the minute marker!!

It hasn't picked up any scratches, dents or dings.

It's an absolute joy to own and a pleasure to wear, it's so very comfortable.

Sounds to good to be true right? Well almost! I do have a slight niggle and that is the fact that it is very hard to change over the bezels to the second one that is included with the watch. I tried a couple of times but have now given up. The original goes back on no problem, but the all metal one is an absolute sod to try and get on. I'm sure a watchmaker would do it with no problem, only thing is that I don't have one local that I would trust!

Now that kind of brings me on to the company...................

During an attempted bezel change I kind of bent the retainer spring slightly out of shape and so I dropped an email to Peter Helson to ask if I could buy a couple more, without any hesitation or charge he had two plastic spacers and two retainer rings sent straight to me, service level = impeccable!

More recently my work mate fell for my Bucc and ordered one too (we now own 2% of the world market in one sleepy corner of England). When his arrived again without any issues at all, he found that the strap was a little too short (an issue I had to a lesser amount) and he dropped Peter an email who promptly and again without charge sent him a longer length replacement.

He was over the moon with the fit of the watch now.

Soooo, I also dropped Peter an email and asked about the longer length strap, and once again, Peter excelled all expectations and promptly sent me one too, and I'm talking complete with all the hardware too!

So if any of you guys like something a little different and look for great quality and service, something sadly lacking with Breitling at present, then I cannot recommend enough both Peter Helson and the watches he produces!

One happy and proud owner of a Helson Buccaneer GMT #100/100

Stef

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Very nice and very unusual piece you've got there Stef. It seems you're really enjoying it. Good for you. It will help you make the days shorter as you wait for your Navi which hopefully is not that far away.



True, there have been several threads lately on that but hopefully this not the general rule.

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- This is Ghost Rider requesting a fly-by. - Negative Ghost Rider. The pattern is full.

It's always great to hear about superb service for a change, and I'm glad the Bucc is performing as expected.

Sadly though, great service these days seems to be the preserve of smaller companies who actually have to care about repeat business. Larger companies (in all industries it seems these days) tend to only be interested right up until you have paid the bill............ then customer care takes a very poor second place.

Having said that, it's a really shame you are still having trouble with BUK with your Navi 01, because I've always found them to be excellent. Now if we were talking about IWC, well.... there's a different story.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Not sure that it's my kind of watch, but great service. That's the advantage of being able to deal directly with the principal.

I like the watch a lot. It seem like a more refined version of my Ocean7, who by the way, charge for each strap.

What's the retail on this watch?

I wonder what would happen if I called BUSA and told them my Bretiling strap was a bit too short? lol

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Regards,

Peter

BREITLING for Bentley Motors T & Mark VI, Aerospace
ROLEX Submariner Ceramic116610LN
OMEGA Plantet Ocean 8500 42mm Orange arabics
OCEAN7 LM-3

I think it's $849 delivered Peter. Worth every penny.

Stef

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congrats on your new helson, i was looking at some the other day and realy like what i saw. i know what you are saying about great c.s. ive never delt with helson but i have had some dealings with benarus. its always nice to deal direct with the owner and have all your e-mails replied to in the same day and any problems delt with in a timely manner. i wish all watch co. could be this easy to deal with. enjoy your new helson it looks awesome!! steve