The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Update 2: . . . to anyone who still cares about this thread.

I just got off the phone with a technical director at BUSA who advised my watch has been fixed and will be back to me on Friday. Here's how he explained what was wrong with my watch. Note that he explained this to me in layman terms, so don't expect a very technical regurgitation from me:

The chronograph on the B01 movement utilizes a vertical clutch, which consists of two wheels. When the chrono is engaged, the first wheel meshes with the second wheel and the sweeping hand moves around the dial. The movement in my watch did not have enough tension between these two wheels, so at a certain point, the sweeping hand would "flutter" due to the wheels meshing improperly. He did not mention the wheel being out of round like last week, so I'm unclear if the lack of tension and roundness have any correlation.

On another note, I did take the opportunity to tell him how disappointed I was with the 2010 Breitling lineup- especially with the B01 bezel being slapped on so many new offerings. He acknowledged the economy of the past couple years has had a great influence on the direction of the company, but did not directly address why they decided to proliferate the B01 bezel. We got to talking a little about the 70-hour power reserve and how it can increase the accuracy of a watch. I also mentioned it's good for adding other complications to a movement. Without directly saying it, he agreed and implied Breitling definitely has some other plans for the B01 movement. I followed up by saying I'd love to see the movement in a Navitimer World case, to which he said, "Just wait."

In addition to the non-definitive answers, I did receive some hard pieces of data from him. He advised Breitling produces between 150,000-200,000 watches per year and they are planning on 70,000-80,000 of them to contain the B01 movement in the near future. I believe these numbers are pretty in line with other posts that touch on this topic. He did speak about the whole Swatch discontinuing movements issue, but this isn't anything we didn't already know.

-Craig

I think that the implication is that at least one of hte wheels was out of round..... The fact that this only occurred for part of the rotation suggests to me that the wheel is out of round.

There's certainly been a great deal of griping on the forum as of late about Breitling, due in large to the lackluster 2010 offerings. To switch it up a bit, I would like to say how incredibly impressed I've been with Breitling's customer service. The best way to evaluate the true colors of any given company is to see how they handle their customers when something goes wrong. In short, Breitling exceeded my expectations in every single way.

By the time I hung up the phone on my initial call to BUSA, I had a direct contact number for a customer service rep and a watchmaker. This was followed up a couple days later by a call from a technical director at BUSA. Thereafter, I received daily updates (yes, DAILY) from the technical director explaining the progress they were making on my B01. Just so there's no confusion, the director was calling ME! I never needed to dial him.

There's another thread on here about a guy who got water in his watch and Breitling is refusing to fix it. If I was in his position, I may feel differently and be very upset like he is. However, my experience with Breitling was the complete opposite. I'm not sure if I received "special" treatment due to the fact I was sending their new flagship movement in for service, but I'd like to think they would treat any customer the way the did me.

Also, they're sending my watch back via next day delivery. Again, I'm not sure if that's normal, but I certainly won't complain.

-Craig

Regardless, I think this does confirm the 1/2 hour totalizer on the B01 moves with a more constant motion than the minute totalizer, which "snaps" to the next notch after every revolution of the sweeping chrono hand. Unfortunately, my sweeping chrono hand is still very messed up, so the watch is still headed back to BUSA. I'm interested to see if my chrono starts working like yours after I get it back.

-Craig

I'm happy to know that BUSA service is so great.......And i'm extremely happy that you got your issue squared away......I hope your watch work great from now on for a very long time.........Also i would like to thank you for your detailed reports and helpful hints for other people dealing with BUSA in the future......And i would like to express my sincere appreciation for your honesty and quick updates (some people would keep it to themselves and never say a word)

So on behalf of myself BIG THANKS

Dave