The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Sorry for the newbie question. I am fortunately enough to be a first time owner of a Breitling watch, a new Bentley Motors. Seems perfect in every way except in the reserve department. Twice now after initially winding 40x (after it being stopped) and then wearing for a couple of 16 hour days (chronograph not active), I get to the weekend and approximately 12.5 hours from taking it off, the watch stops. I've read that the watch should have a 42 hour reserve (dealer told me 56 hours) so unless I'm misunderstanding the definition of "reserve" this doesn't seem to be right. I assume there isn't a "break in" period?

I'd hate to send a two week old watch away for an 8 week warranty repair, but perhaps I have no choice.

Thank you for any feedback.

give it about 50-60 complete turns then let it sit until it stops to determine the power reserve. if its less than 40ish, then you may have a problem. You may not be keeping it fully wound if you are fairly inactive when you wear it.

Thank you, I'll let it run down and then wind it up and see -

I have many other self winders that seem to wind well on my wrist movements, but maybe this watch is different...

Will report back

you don't have to let it run down before you wind it. Just give it 40+ turns and let it sit.

Perfect, done now.

Thanks!

After a full wind, 46 hours and 38 minutes of run time. Seems good to me.

Question: Should normal daily wrist wearing be enough to maintain a full wind throughout the day or is the self winder fighting a losing battle and after a period needs to be supplemented on occassion with a real wind? In other words, should the watch be able to make the full 46 hours of reserve after a day of only selfwinding?

Thanks

If you wear it all the time it should stay fully wound - so long as it starts with a fully wound spring. Normal motion on the arm is intended to maintain the tension on the spring - it will not wind the watch/increase the tension. Depending how active you are in the 16 hours/day you wear it, it may need a wind once a week or so.

Look at the watch winder thread recently added by one of the moderators - the same basic principles apply to wearing a watch as keeping it on a winder.

If you have any concern, just give it a wind occasionally. You can't overwind it.

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SHARKMAN

Thanks Sharkman, makes sense. I was under the mistaken assumption that self winding actually replaced the need for winding instead of working in support of it.

Wearing the watch is only a 'maintenance' function - a normal day's worth of wear is equivalent to 24 hours of run time.

Closing the loop; after starting with a full wind and then a week of wearing +/- 16 hours a day with no further winding, the watch ran 24 hrs 32 min once taken off. Seems to be within spec.

I'm surprised & a little disappointed that the manual isn't any more detailed than than a $300 Seiko though.

Thanks to all who have commented!

To be honest I'm not sure what else there is for Breitling to put in the manual. There's not a whole lot more to say about the watch in terms of using it.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

I admit, not much is missing but a few items I would have expected the manual to share:

- Normal run time after a full wind
- The fact that the watch can't be overwound
- That the self winding mechanism doesn't fully wind the watch, only extends it's run time

As one becomes familar with the watch what's normal becomes obvious. In my case, it was the forum that helped me with that, not the manual nor the jeweler as he stated a run time of 56 hours, that it can be overwound (never wind more than 40x) and that the self winding function would fully wind the watch for 56 hours of reserve.

The reserve should be added, I agree with that. However I always have a bit of a problem with an expectation that manuals have to tell you what you don't have to do - it doesn't tell you that the watch can't be overwound, but it also doesn't tell you that you have to change the date on months with less than 31 days and I'm OK with that - there are too many 'does it do this' type questions that they could try and answer.

In terms of the sefl winding piece - that would be impossible to put in a manual. Depending on how active you are it is entirely possible that wearing the watch from a nil power reserve would give it a full charge.

Roffensian;

Agree with your logic. I guess what gets me about the manual is there there isn't a specifications page like there is in the Breitling catalogs I've seen. Would be nice to know how many jewels the watch has, weight, movement type, etc. A bit of extra data that further educates and increases the enjoyment for me.