The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I have a SOS that is within 1-2 sec per day fast. I have (2) Avenger SW that are about 6 sec per day fast. My Black Bird was running about 5-6 seconds fast and then over the course of (1) (it seemed) the Black Bird is almost as close to the SOS. All watches are kept on winder or hand wound when not in use. Also, all watches are fast which is easier to set than slow. I had a Fortis regulated that was 15 sec fast per day and now it is 15 sec slow; so, I have not been eager to send in the sometimes out of COSC Breitlings.

I guess the real question is how long should it take a watch to "break in"? I am not terribly concerned about a few seconds per day. I am wondering if a Breitling watch / movement will remain "predictable" between service intervals.

BTW, all watches bought new in 2009. The SOS was the first in March 09.

R/

A few weeks, maybe a month, is usually enough to a watch to "settle". In terms of whether it will remain predictable between services, then provided you don't subject it to magnetic fields, harsh knocks, etc, and as long you don't just leave it unworn and unwound for a year or something, then it should remain pretty stable. Obviously as you get nearer to a service interval then it's timekeeping may change slightly, but that'll be because a service is due.

The only watch I've ever had where it's timekeeping changed (for the worse) between service windows is my Big Pilot.... and that seems to have totally baffled IWC as well! Never had a problem with any of the Breitlings (or other brands) I've owned.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Agree with everything that Driver8 says, but to add to the question of consistency.....

The only way that a watch will remain perfectly consistent is if nothing changes - temperature variations, positional variations, amount of reserve in the mainspring, etc will all have a slight impact on the accuracy from day to day. To try and minimise the impact of these variations it's probably more valid to time accuracy over a longer period - say weekly, rather than daily when the variations may be considerable.

As mentioned a few times, you can also adjust accuracy somewhat yourself with the position that it is laid in overnight, but obviously if your watches are on winders they'll always be in the same position.