The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Had a read through the mail shot from Breitling which I'm sure we all recieved, for the new Navitimer 01 LE with in house movement.

Picked out a couple of paragraphs that seem a bit odd to me.....



So does this mean the movement is partially machine assembled? I can't see that


Don't really understand what this means

The majority of watch movements are machine made. Even Patek Phillipe uses more machines than you would think. And Rolex...how do you think they pump out almost a million watches per year?

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-RJ

Breitling have often said that machines are better at certain super-precision tasks than a person could ever be, so that is the ethos they've brought to the production of the B01. They maintain that the parts that are better done by hand most definitely still are, as is all the QC etc. It makes sense to be honest, to use the best of both worlds. If the accuracy we've seen from the B01 is anything to go by I'd say they've done a spot-on job.

Plus as RJ said, there's no way they could produce the famed 50,000 units if they were all entirely hand assembled. they'd need a small army of guys with incredibly steady hands if they wanted to do it all by hand.

The bit about "index adjustment"....... God knows! I didn't understand it last year and I still don't! I'm guessing it has something to do with easier regulation but I'm not sure.

Sounds cool though, and more index adjustment has got to be better that less.........whatever it is!

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Driver8

Site Moderator

I guess when you look at the numbers, it makes good sense. I always pictured movements being mostly hand assembled, but given the production numbers that would be rediculous.

Would like to see the kind of machine that can insert and torque up some of those tiny screws

As someone who is now learning the frustrations of hand movement assembly (darn it it came apart so easily!), I can see many situations where machine assembly would be a real help without any adverse affect - jewel setting for example - you can ensure that you get the right depth every time. Remember also that these have long been machine executed tasks, it's just that now the machine is operated electronically rather than by hand.

Index adjustment, in larger machinery, are the adjustments made to a cutting or milling machine to correctly cut gears.

So scaling it down to watch sizes I would think its the same sort of adjustments for the machining of complex gears and teeth, or even just the adjustments to any machines to ensure that the last part it makes is the same size as the first part, day in day out.

Ian.

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Navitimer World, Callistino.
Omega Speedmaster Moon, Hamilton 992B, Steinhart BS LEII #2, B&R 01-92 Heritage

You could strart looking here:

http://www.expo21xx.com/watch21xx/machinery.htm

Ian.

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Navitimer World, Callistino.
Omega Speedmaster Moon, Hamilton 992B, Steinhart BS LEII #2, B&R 01-92 Heritage