The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi,

been wearning my steelfish for over a week now and just want to check to see if what I have found is normal (ive never owned a automatic watch before)

the watch tends to vary in accuracy, for the first 2-3 days it ran perfectly in time with my computer (I assume the computer time is accurate), then over the next few days it went to be about 15 seconds fast est 3-4 seconds a day fast, now it back to being 4 seconds out, so in the space of a week its gone from perfect to 3-4 seconds a day fast to the being 2-3 seconds a day slow and is almost back to normal now. so overall in a week and a half its 6 seconds fast which i am very happy with.

the reasons i ask is i would have thought that the watch would just be one thing, ie fast or slow, but this one seems to change on a daily basis

p.s. ive only checked the time every couple of days so dont know what has happened day

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Brietling SO SF - Blue Dial

A couple things, first off are you absolutely sure it's completely wound (40 turns of the crown) and second, do you take the watch off at night and leave it in the exact same position? I take mine off at night and it 100% of the time gets layed down on the 9:00 side of the watch. I also will take the time to wind it every week or so, just because I want to make sure its competely charged and my activity might not be keeping it that way. So far, so good... my daily worn Steelfish runs 2-3 seconds slow and has for a very long time.

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Breitling Steelfish(black)
Breitling Steelfish(silver)
Panerai PAM 312
Bell & Ross BR03-92 Phantom
Steinhart BreitlingSource LE #5/15

Also remember that the mainspring will go through a "conditioning" stage and will take a few weeks to self regulate. If after a month or two its still erratic on the time loss/gain, I would take it back to the AD and have them check/regulate it.

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Breitling Steelfish(black)
Breitling Steelfish(silver)
Panerai PAM 312
Bell & Ross BR03-92 Phantom
Steinhart BreitlingSource LE #5/15

i wear it at night, only time it comes off is when i shower

i will monitor it daily and see what it keeps doing and give it a full wind first, i am quite active in my job - well i walk about alot so my hands are always moving so it should keep itself wound up ok

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Brietling SO SF - Blue Dial

Accuracy is affected by a myriad of different factors - position, amount of reserve in the mainspring, temperature, etc, etc, etc. Also, if you check the watch at different times of day then it may have additional variances. All of this will affect whether the watch runs fast or slow and the secret of good regulation is to try and find a balance where over time the errors cancel one another out, and it sounds like yours is doing very well on that.

Additionally, as BroncoSport says, a new watch needs to settle and until it does you will see greater variances.

Also, use time.gov to check accuracy. Your computer clock can be off if it hasnt been synced recently.

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-RJ

thanks for the replies, cant use the imte.gov site as my computer does not want to install the software, will change the virus protection levels and do it another time

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Brietling SO SF - Blue Dial

It's only a java applet that manages animation and there is a link at the top of the page entitled 'disable java animation' that gives you a non java version of the site.

MY SA is doing the same thing

Like the guys have said it will settle down and since you are wearing it daily I would check it about once a week to see where your at! I've been wearing a Ti chrono avenger the last 8 days (just can't get it off my wrist) and it been off 15 seconds in the 8 days! Oh yeah it's a 2004 model that has only been to BUSA once back in 2005! Love me some Breitlings, enjoy your watch!

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TREVOR

My SOSF runs a constant +2 per day. I probably reset in once a month to time.gov and then check if for the next 3 consecutive days and then forget about it.

When I first got the watch, it ran +/- 4 seconds a day for about the first month. The other guys on here will know more, but I think there is certain validity to the previously mentioned "break in"

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Rock Chalk!

Am I the only one that's happy if my watch is within 5 minutes of the real time? In the waaayyyyyy to short month that I got to wear it I set it once, never thought about how many seconds it was off per day and only looked at it tell the time......or just admire it.

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"Leave the gun, take the cannoli."

I expect mine to be within the specs that it is supposed to run to, but I certainly don't care if it 's a minute or two out - as long as it's not slow, because then I can miss trains, be late for meetings, etc.

I don't want to hijack the thread, but some of the answers do raise a question. I have seen it posted in other threads, as well as this one, that you should set your watch down the same way each night to ensure accuracy. Does this really have a significant impact on the accuracy? In addition, what if you put your watch in a winder each night, does that adversely impact the accuracy? Pardon my ignorance and please forgive me if I have just hijacked things.

Watches tend to run faster on their backs than with the crown up (balance horizontal vs. vertical), the difference can be several seconds.

A winder will affect accuracy because it will keep the mainspring at a fairly consistent wind rather than it running down. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing will depend on the inherent accuracy of the watch, the amount of reserve in the mainspring, etc - impossible to provide a single answer to that one.