The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Have done a search but not found any definitive answers to my questions.

Due to now having two Breitling auto's, I thought I'd invest in a decent watch winder - not some cheapo rubbish of ebay but from a decent seller. So I opted for one of the BensonTrade digital winders as it will fit in to my bedroom decor and not offend the Mrs! Very nice, well made bit of kit (wooden case, real glass and leather), easy to setup and goes well with the look and technology of Breitling.

So my questions ... looking at Orbita I believe both my Superocean and Seawolf require the same treatment on the winder which is 650TPD both directions. Can someone in the know confirm this is the case?

Secondly, I note the comment that a winder won't actually do what it says - which is to WIND the watch - it will just keep it to the point it has reached within the power reserve. So winding it fully (40 turns) and putting straight in the winder will keep it fully wound? So is this the case when the watch is worn then? that the action of wearing it/moving just keeps it running but won't wind it up? So if I set the winder to more than the 650TPD will it then actually wind the watch to the maximum power reserve?

Only ever having had quartz watches in the past and now getting tired of having to manually wind my auto's each time I wear them (and having to worry about correcting the date within the allowable time period etc) the winder seemed the way to go, but I'm confused as to how the auto's work if the winder doesn't actually wind them up. Can someone explain?

Thanks.

_________________
Have
2019 B55 Exospace on Titanium bracelet
2014 SuperAvenger II Military LE
Had
2013 Avenger Seawolf SS yellow Arabic dial
2010 Aerospace Avantage black dial & Co-pilot
2007 Aerospace Repetition Minutes
2003 Superocean
2001 Chronospace

Orbita database is reliable, 650 is accurate.

650 turns per day is needed to 'replace' 24 hours of the watch running, when you wear the watch you will generally create more motion than the equivalent of that so generally a watch will wind - e.g. put it on the nightstand overnight and put it on in the morning with 8 hours less power reserve, but take it off at night with a full power reserve through wear. That said, a watch should be wound before wear if it has stopped to make sure that there is a 'safety margin'.

A winder is designed to maintain the watch at the level of reserve that it was put on the winder, with the assumption being that the watch will be put in the winder straight from the wrist and so is likely to have a full / close to full power reserve. If you set the winder for more than 650 turns per day (obviously ensuring the right direction) then it will add to the reserve, but that's unlikely to be necessary if you take the watch off and put it on the winder.

Thanks for the info Roff,

So setting to say 750 or 850 TPD may be more sensible to 'top off' any loss of power reserve? Sometimes I'll take off the watch and not put it onto the winder until I go to bed so may have it stationary for 4 or 5 hours. It has 5 settings IIRC, 650, 750, 850, 1000, 1950 TPD and CW/CCW/BW and I currently have it set for 650 BW for both watches.

Neither watch stops whilst on the winder and I have had my Seawolf on there for a week whilst I wear my SO so it's definitely working. Just want to make sure I get the best out of it (and both my auto's) as it wasn't cheap, but nowhere near the stupid costs that some of the watch dealers (my AD included) want to charge for what looks on the surface a basic model that just runs for a set time and then rests for a set time with no indication on the number of TPD.

_________________
Have
2019 B55 Exospace on Titanium bracelet
2014 SuperAvenger II Military LE
Had
2013 Avenger Seawolf SS yellow Arabic dial
2010 Aerospace Avantage black dial & Co-pilot
2007 Aerospace Repetition Minutes
2003 Superocean
2001 Chronospace

It's really not necessary - 4 hours on a 42 hour power reserve is nothing, it would get more rest time than that if it were left on the nightstand overnight.

If you really want to set it higher then I would only do 750, there's no huge downside to more but I wouldn't want my watch constantly being wound at full reserve because over time that will cause more wear on the mainspring.

OK. I think I'll leave it on 650 and see what happens.

Annoyingly, my older SO has more power reserve than my brand new (well 4 month old) Seawolf. It's also more in-spec to COSC than the SW which is verging on being outside of spec as it's gaining 6+ seconds per day while the SO is gaining no more than 2 or 3. I'm desperately putting aside any thoughts of it going to BUK under warranty as they seem to be pretty dire in getting watches back 'perfect' these days. There seems to be more interest in up-selling extra parts/interventions than actually doing the job in hand.

_________________
Have
2019 B55 Exospace on Titanium bracelet
2014 SuperAvenger II Military LE
Had
2013 Avenger Seawolf SS yellow Arabic dial
2010 Aerospace Avantage black dial & Co-pilot
2007 Aerospace Repetition Minutes
2003 Superocean
2001 Chronospace