The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hello Gentlemen. First of all from a new user allow me to thank the moderators of the site as well as all those who have made a contribution. As I went in quest of my first Breitling I have found this forum to be of particular use. Is it relatively "common" (ie has anyone ever heard of) for the GMT hand on an automatic Colt to be mis-positioned or not exactly where it should be in relation to the minute hand? I am also wondering what I should be looking for in terms of "feel" when I am setting the GMT hand. Should the feel of setting the GMT hand be smooth around the dial or should I feel the GMT hand "ticking" as it passes each hour on the GMT dial? Right now when I set the GMT hand the hand falls into a pre-set position at each hour. That is you can skip ahead hour by hour and the hand sort of "clicks" or "ticks" into place just as the date does when you set the date.Is that correct? I assume that that pre-set spot that the GMT hand stops at should be "on the hour", but mine ratchets the hand to a position halfway between any two numbers on the GMT dial. Something that I'm wondering though... if the GMT hand is not allowed to be set to any position on the dial, does that mean that you can only accurately set the GMT hand at the top of the hour? I want to be able to set the GMT hand to any position on the dial that I want to, and right now I can't do so. This makes it impossible for the GMT function to be accurate. I'll try to post a photo of the watch to illustrate my point. With the minute hand at the 12 o'clock position should the GMT hand not point directly at a numeral on the GMT dial? Perhaps this is merely a matter of having the hand re-positioned by a professional? Are there any automatic GMT owners out there who have had experience with this sort of thing? Thank you in advance to all those who take time to post a reply.JCT.

Hi jct and welcome to the site. The GMT hand, as you say, should be aligned with the number or marker if the hour hand is on the hour and the minute hand is at twelve. It would appear from the picture that you have posted that there is an alignment problem with your watch. I would think that it should be a fairly simple matter of repositioning the hands to correct the problem and others on this site can give you guidance there.

As far as the clicking or ticking sound and the way the gmt hand "feels" when you move it, that is ok. It takes some getting used to and feels like it may be broken, but that is the way it works and it's OK.

Elwyn

As Elwyn says realigning the hand is fairly simple, but the movement does need to be removed from the case so it needs to be done by a Breitling watchmaker.