The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Breitling make great watches but beware their customer service is worse than most rip off market stalls! at least, this in my experience in the UK. I bought a Transocean Rose Gold Chronograph on November 25th 2012 and since then I have been in possession of it for five months whilst Breitling Service Center UK have had it for eight months. For sure it is a beautiful watch but after a few months it started keeping poor time and stopping at weekends. My dealer in Newbury convinced me to send it back as this is not right on a £15K watch. It was away for 5 months and came back with a new crystal and an additional croc strap. Two days later it stopped three times during the same day. I returned it to the dealer and back to Breitling where it has been ever since. Through the dealer in Newbury Breitling have offered me leather jackets and watch winding boxes - An insult as I originally went in to buy a top quality watch!!! Currently I am told Breitling are building a new movement and that this will take some time as they have to use the same serial number to match the case. For real??? the same serial number?? Replacing the watch with a new one was mentioned by my dealer but considered too expensive. Its alright for me to lose money on a white elephant though!
In may 2013 I also bought a limited edition SuperOcean that has been very good - My advice steer well clear of the B01 movement and seriously consider other brands that value quality and customer service. May be I'll have a watch back in my possession by February 2014. I will never buy Breitling again or recommend them to anyone for due to this experience. My worst ever shopping mistake!! Be informed and beware.
Is my service experience a common experience??

Hello Andmurph,

Sorry to hear this. As an AD for Breitling I have sold many B01 movements in Breitling watches. And occasionally I had one coming back with a fault. The most common problem that I have had with the movement is the chronohand, after using it, doesn't jump back to zero but to one second... Breitling Belgium fixed this problem within a week time. This happened to two of my clients. Knowing how many B01 movements I sell per year, I can honestly say that this is not too bad for Breitling. Haven't had any big problems with their manufacture movement... Hope this will be sorted for you.

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I have no experience of the B01 movement but feel your pain about BUK service, of which I have had experience in the past, have felt they consider me to be a 'mug' with too much money that can be 'tapped up' for chargeable interventions that eventually turn out to be unnecessary.

If you contact BUK and ask for prices, even if you specify (for example) the cost of a MAINTENANCE intervention, they will quote you for a full OVERHAUL. When you send the watch in, they will send you a quote detailing in the minutest detail just what needs to be done to your watch at silly cost but when you cross-examine them it is clear that they really haven't examined your watch in detail and just have a company philosophy to 'upsell' as much as possible.

As an example, my Aerospace went in for a MAINTENANCE service and new battery, and it came back with all sorts of stuff like "replace crystal, replace crown, replace dial and hands" ... and when queried, it was "the opinion of the person who booked the watch in as there is a tiny mark on the crown and a scratch on the crystal (read invisible as I could never find it) and the dial had 'faded' (eh? - lume is as bright as ever was as that's the only thing I reckon they can mean).

My Seawolf is on the cusp of being outside COSC, but it's going to have to start gaining (or loosing) a few minutes a day or stop altogether before I'll send it in and let them bugger it up. Not confidence making is it? Mind you, my AD's Breitling approved in-house service centre replaced the battery in my Aero Avantage with the WRONG SIZE/TYPE of battery, so if you tapped the watch, it would 'reboot' with garbage on the display. They did sort it for me and I got a free battery fit out of it.

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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

Clearly a lot of people have had B01 movements serviced successfully, unfortunately it's because so many people have had to use the warranty!

In the years that I have been here I have read numerous good stories and numerous bad stories about BUK, and about the other service centres, I guess it goes with the territory. The argument about the same serial number is something that you should appreciate - the COSC is for the movement, not the watch and if you have a different movement serial number without any explanation then that could cause huge issues down the road if you ever tried to sell.

I would make sure that BUK is aware of your frustration, and that you aren't interested in gifts to try and make up for it, it might not help, but it can't hurt. I have also deleted your duplicate thread, please don't double post.

It's always worth counter-balancing stories about service. My Steelfish is four years old (so two yrs beyond warranty) and the crown wouldn't lock down. I sent it into Breitling Australia, worried that i was up for hundreds of dollars. I spoke to them yesterday and they have replaced the crown for free as a good will gesture and while they encouraged a service they were quite understanding about my declining.

I sent my B01 in to the service centre in Singapore once late last year because I noticed that the time was losing 10 Sec a day soon after I bought the watch. Before I went I emailed them many times on some queries and everytime they were quick to reply and would even call me back to answer my concerns. When I sent it in they told me that they would check the movement first and tell me how long it would take. Eventually they told me that it would take around 2 weeks cos it needed servicing but I got it back in a week plus. When I got my watch, I checked the exterior thoroughly and noticed that there was a scratch on the case which I wasn't sure if it had been there before I sent in. I told them about it and they brought the watch in for a few min and came out with the scratch gone. The only part that I was unhappy was that I could see fingerprints on my watch which I expected not to see any when I got my watch back. Other than that I would say that their service is great and professional. My B01 has been running great ever since.

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Breitling Chronomat 01 Limited Edition
Breitling Navitimer 01 46mm

Sorry to hear, mine went back to the factory in CH for losing about 10sec a day for no apparent reason. Came back after a week and a half working perfectly. Must say i'm quite satisfied with how they dealt with the issue. My AD does have a very close friendship with Breitling though... At least that's how it looked when JP Girardin just sortof happened to be there last time i visited. Perhaps that makes the service orders especially speedy, I dont know.

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Cheers from Switzerland,

Fred

Poor service (or perceived poor service) are always highly emotive, and it doesn't take much in the way of poor customer service to totally destroy a person's confidence in a brand. My experience with IWC's service has put me off buying another : not because of the watches, but because of the service I received.

In contrast, BUK has been nothing short of fantastic for me whenever I've had any dealings with them. Obviously that is of no comfort to you, but it just highlights the differing experiences we can have.

As an aside, it never ceases to amaze me how company's (especially those in the luxury market) don't bend over backwards to ENSURE that any customer service issue is fixed, and fixed first time. In many ways an efficiently solved issue will sometimes produce MORE postive feedback for a company than if the issue never actually happened in the first place. Likewise a poorly handled customer service issue will generate a huge amount of bad feeling. Businesses have ONE CHANCE to get it right or else they lose that customer (and potentially others who the person tells) for ever.

Take the OP in this thread for example - a new member here, one solitary post, and that post is to say how bad BUK's customer service is. Company's need to understand that in the modern internet age it's incredibly easy for people to make their dissatisfaction known to thousands of people.

In the OP's case, Breitling should've (IMO) either made damn sure they both fixed and thoroughly tested it on the first occasion, or they should've just sucked it up and given the OP a new watch. The problem would've been solved and the OP would've been praising the efficiency and quality of Breitling's customer service.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

@Driver8

But just look at your 'location' - you have in there "Rip-off Britain" so that pretty much says it all, doesn't it? Almost in every service sector in the UK, big, reputable companies give shoddy service. Why? Because they CAN. And very little is done to address this.

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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

OK, so this is now a hit on BUK. So be it, I don't have any experience with them.
I do however have a bit of experience, with the B01 movement.
I have three B01 powered watches in my collection and all three of them so far (2-3 years later) are still working perfectly fine. I have pushed them all, Chrono functions and all.
Working fine so far.
Maybe I'm just lucky.

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"It is just a matter of time!"

I've had a few B01 issues and all were addressed quickly by BUSA. I just chalk it up to it being a relatively new movement still and am just happy that breitling fixed the issues quickly.

OP, sorry to hear about your issues, but you'll unfortunately get no sympathy from me. I think it's safe to say that I've routinely had the most issues with my Chronomat B01 . . . or maybe it's just that I'm the most vocal. I won't go into detail, but it's been back to BUSA 4 times for the same problem. The final time they decided to replace the movement. It came back to me with a NEW problem . . .

It became clear to me that BUSA was clearly incapable of fixing the problem, so I stopped sending it back. I still have it and it still has the same problem. I can't wait until I send it in for a routine service and they actually want to charge me money on top of the service fee to fix whatever is wrong with it. That's going to be a post you definitely don't want to miss!

Anyway, I live in the UK now and I'm halfway tempted to personally show up on Breitling's doorstep in Switzerland with it when it comes time to service, just to be able to tell them the horror story I've had with their piece of s#it movement in the hopes they might fix it a 5th time for free. Unfortunately, as an early adopter who bought the watch a month after it was released, I don't get the 5-year warranty that's now given to customers. Thanks, Breitling.

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Chronomat 01- Sierra Silver/Steel
Navitimer 01- Limited Edition #1337/2000