The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi everyone,

Yet another question for the experts. On my Steelfish and Colt GMT, there is hardly any slack in the minute hand, meaning that I just follow the following procedure for setting the time:

1. Wait for the second hand to reach 0
2. Pull crown all the way out
3. Set minute hand to the correct minute marker
4. Push crown in

My more newly acquired Bentley GT and Bentley Motors T, however, have a lot more slack in the minute hand. With my GT I can follow the advice of O2AFAC67 on this thread here to set it with no problems: http://breitlingsource.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10570&hilit=setting. If I don't follow his advice, it takes about 30 seconds for the minute hand to start moving, so it's behind by 30 seconds making it a little hard to read. My wife's Chrono Cockpit also has the exact same behavior, so I wonder if this is a feature of the B13 movement.

My Motors T is a different story, though. In fact, when I first got it, it was driving me nuts because I thought it was loosing like 1 minute a day! I took it back to the watchmaker who does my appraisals and he measured the timing of the movement and said it was perfectly fine. I have since realized that the problem is that even when following O2AFAC67's advice, it still takes about 1 minute for the minute hand to engage (!). Consequently, I would set the thing and it would be exactly 1 minute behind the following day.

This is strange...does anyone have an explanation for this behavior?

I have also tried setting it with the slack taken up in the forward direction, as opposed to the reverse direction as per O2AFAC67's instructions. In other words, I do the following:

1. Wait for the second hand to reach 0
2. Pull crown all the way out
3. Set minute hand to the correct minute marker by moving it forwards
4. Push crown in, being careful to push it straight in and not rotate it backwards at all.

If I do this, it only gets behind about 30 seconds, but it still does get behind.

Therefore, there appears to be no way to set my Motors T with no lag in the minute hand. I have to predict the lag and compensate for it. Anyone else have this problem?

--Mofongo


P.S. My Motors T also has the strange behavior that when I pull the crown out, it sometimes causes the second hand to jump a few seconds...usually forward.

_________________
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness." --Dave Barry

I have a similar issue with an 09 Blackbird. It is funny how we can be so concerned with a time piece, but we are. My Seawolf and Steelfish do not have the same issue.

R/

There's no logical reason why it shouldn't work. Try winding time backwards and forwards a little (outside of 8pm - 3am ovbviously) to make sure that you have taken up all the slack in the running train.

Hmmm....I tried going backwards and forwards about 6 hours. To set it, I went backwards several hours before clicking the crown in. The minute hand still does nothing for about 1 minute, then starts moving. Same strange behavior.

Interestingly, I have fiddled more with it by moving the minute in the forward direction and then clicking the crown in. Here, it consistently takes only 10-15 seconds before the minute hand starts to move. So for some reason, forwards is a lot better than backwards.

--Mofongo

_________________
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness." --Dave Barry

I didn't understand any of that but hope by now that all is well!

Just wanted to say congratulations Mofongo on the new acquisitions - a Bentley GT and Motors T are very nice additions to the family. I look forward to some photos

_________________
Happines is Good Health and a Bad Memory.
"Ingrid Bergman"

Yeah, we have been super busy with travel...I have not spent more than 3 consecutive days home in 2 months! The opportunities to get the watches came up right before and during this time frame, though, so I could not say "no" even though the timing was not very convenient. (In fact, the wife's Cockpit Chrono was purchased on Ebay when we were sitting in a hotel room in Bangkok...the owner was kind enough to delay shipping it to us until we returned). But we have not had time for picture taking. In fact, when we left the country for 3 weeks, I did not want to carry a gazillion dollars worth of watches around with me, so I only took my Colt. I missed my Bentleys!

Now I am waiting for a sunny day in Seattle to take pictures.

I might be waiting until July, though.....

--M

P.S. although it does have the goofy behavior with setting the minute hand, my Motors has only lost 4 seconds in the last 3 days. So at least it's keeping excellent time.

_________________
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness." --Dave Barry

I'll be darned...we actually got a sunny day! I ran out and too some pics, finally: http://breitlingsource.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=14550

///M

_________________
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness." --Dave Barry

Hmm...I noticed today that sometimes the minute hand moves ever so slightly when I push the start/stop chrono pusher, too. Strange.

Keeps excellent time, though...drift of less than +1s per day.

///M

_________________
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness." --Dave Barry

Not strange at all, perfectly normal.

It's an inherent 'feature' of the tilting pinion chrono movement used by Breitling (and many others). It's most noticeable on Bentley Motors due to the design, but it happens on all - sometimes it's not visible, but the issue still exists. It doesn't actually impact the time as the minute hand waits for the movement to 'catch up' (OK, gross over simplification, but you get what I mean).

That's good to know! Thanks again, Roff!

///M

_________________
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness." --Dave Barry