The Breitling Watch Source Forums

There is nothing inherently new in the design of Breitling's in house movements. The column wheel was one of the first chronograph actuation methods invented, the longer power reserve of 70 hours is a significant functional advantage over ETA, but is again not new and not industry leading by a long stretch. The instant date change is another key feature of in house, but some ETAs have it as well (including some of the Breitling modified ones).

Now to be fair to Breitling if you are producing a relatively simple movement with 'only' date and chronograph complications initially and more recently GMT or world timer additions then there is not a lot that you can do to come up with an innovative design. Virtually all of the innovative movements deliver innovative complications - think of multiple escapements, ultra high beats, hundredth and thousandths of a second chronographs, etc.

Much of the challenge in designing a new movement is actually to make it new rather than a copy of so many other movements out there because so much is imposed on the movement - the way that the power transfers from mainspring to escapement, the way that the watch winds, the display of time and chronograph, etc.

In terms of the R&D work, much of that has to go into converting the design into something that can be serially produced in the numbers that Breitling needs - what is 'easy' to produce as a one off prototype by a master watchmaker is much harder to produce at the rate of 50,000 a year in a largely automated process. The variables are huge - everything from the best length and strength of the hairspring to the size and shape of plates. Thyen of course there is all of the testing under differnet conditions - make no mistake Breitling spent a huge amount of time trying to figure out how the movement would behave in the real world.

But.... simulating the real world isn't the same as the real world and that is where (I believe) they are running into problems. I am sure that every problem is helping them to identify the root cause of the issues, but the fact that they are still occurring clearly shows that they aren't solved. There is lag - even if the problem is now solved at a factory level then watches from before the fixes are still out there in the real world so it will appear as though the problem still exists even after it is truly solved.

i am sure that Roff will give you a more technical explanation than I can. but from my understanding it has to do with things like layout of the dial as well making movements fit to the case. factor in the need to change how things work from the layout of the generic movements and thats where things get tricky.


edit - my bad i posted this without seeing the above post. thanks for the technical explanation Roff

Thanks for the explanation Roff... But yet again, coming to think of it, do u really think it's a design problem on the movement? Remember there was a thread asking how many B01 owners faced issues with their watch and actually majority of the answers were No. Maybe it's only that few out of thousands of B01 owners who faced issues but they are the ones who normally make more comments on threads to express their concern.

I was thinking if really it's design flaw on 01 movement, rightfully 10 out of 10 users should encounter problems, if not 9 out of 10...But according to previous thread it was minority, not taking into consideration the many more B01 owners out there who are not in this forum. After all we are all wearing the watch on our hands, so can't really differ much on the impact of the watch IMO. Well it's not that those who encountered issues faced them only after rigorous activities because if it does we can say that the movement cannot withstand certain shocks as it was supposed to. I am beginning to suspect if it's more on a flaw of the assembly process, rather than the design flaw? Since there are many, but not all or majority of the B01 owners who faced issues, somehow it tells me that the quality assurance during the assembly process is flawed, rather than design of the movement. After all it's not one watchmaker who assembles the entire watch from start to finish but rather the watch passes through so many hands before it is fully assembled. "The central highway" that is designed by Breitling moves every movement from one watchmaker to another to assemble individual parts. I have a feeling that it is this process that somehow created those issues, well they could withstand "real time simulations" but not real life situations for some of the pieces that went slightly wrong along the way.

As for those who faced repeated or more issues after servicing, all seemed to come from BUSA. If it does then something must be wrong with the standards there. Maybe we should create a thread for some statistics compilation.

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Breitling Chronomat 01 Limited Edition
Breitling Navitimer 01 46mm

You asked for a technical explanation and got it from Roff. It's like you are unhappy with what was shared with you.

Status report. Self explanatory.
Note: The Navi was started a couple of seconds later than the Chronomat and the TOC as I only have two hands and I don't think Mrs Wessa would be very appreciative of me waking her up at midnight and asking for assistance in starting the chronometer
Not the best quality picture but don't expect better at 7:30 in the morning.
I left the chronos running and will be checking again tonight.

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"It is just a matter of time!"

Thks Wessa for the effort and useful test:)

Sorry Roff, not that I am challenging yr knowledge, but I am just stating my opinions on some possibilities that could add to the root of the issues, after all statistics don't lie. What u mentioned are indeed true, but somehow it's strange that not majority of B01 owners faced issues, as it should be if it is a design flaw. Anyway I have created a new thread with hope of more information coming in...Hope eventually it will help in someway or another.

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Breitling Chronomat 01 Limited Edition
Breitling Navitimer 01 46mm

I'm getting more depressed by the hour. This reminded me of the problems Omega had with the 33XX chrono movements a while back. This is as far as they got "admitting" a problem: http://www.chronocentric.com/forums/ome ... d;id=41954

This issue mine has, and Sergio's had, is so bizarre. I have mine off the winder now with a full wind and the chrono off, running since yesterday to check the power reserve. I have little doubt it will come in at bout 70 hours. So far it is running dead on - +/- 0 secs/hour. It's a great looking and perfect time keeping 3 hand watch!

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SHARKMAN

U must be worried about sending it to BUSA. But seems like you have no choice because I don't believe that you will make do with what you have now.

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Breitling Chronomat 01 Limited Edition
Breitling Navitimer 01 46mm

That was exactly the example that I was going to use as an example of a design issue.



Don't follow that logic at all.

I am pretty sure that a company is going to figure out a problem that affects most / all pieces in basic testing. What makes it to production are the issues that only occur in certain circumstances. All watches have different 'real world' experiences and a huge number of variables that affect what happens to them. Think about any other industry - car recalls as an example, or the Omega 33XX calibres. They don't occur because every single car is going to go wrong, but they are issues that increase the likelihood of problems - and that seems to be what is happening here. Some of those issues are manufacturing related and generally relatively easy to fix, some are design issues and have to be solved through other means until the design can be updated - generally resulting in a longer time to fix. I obviously have no way of proving whether the issues here are design related, but if they aren't then their engineers seem to be taking a very long time to fix a manufacturing problem.

22 hours later, the TOC, Navi and Chronomat are still running perfectly fine with the chronographs on.
I guess I can conclude that all three are fine, for now at least.

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"It is just a matter of time!"

Ya makes sense... Where manufacturing is concerned I think they already self convince that their "Central Highway" assembly process is marvelous and I don't think they intend to change that. Not a concern for me as long as it doesn't affect the quality of the end product. But from most feedbacks including yourself, it's best to have one watchmaker doing the work from start to finish. Where design flaw is concerned, we can only hope that they can work things out soon.

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Breitling Chronomat 01 Limited Edition
Breitling Navitimer 01 46mm

Great and comforting to hear that... The longest that I left my chronograph running was for about 16 hours and was still running fine after that. Lucky u to have all 3 free of issues;)

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Breitling Chronomat 01 Limited Edition
Breitling Navitimer 01 46mm

Glad to hear it!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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SHARKMAN

Have faith Sharkman...Will pray for you;)

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Breitling Chronomat 01 Limited Edition
Breitling Navitimer 01 46mm

This dude is intent on shinning the light on 01 issues, give it a rest.

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"I don't own any watches, I just lease them"