The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi Guys.

I just want to know the proper way of changing the date on my SO 44. I seldom use it and every time I need to, I have to adjust the date and time. The sales rep where I bought it, taught me these following steps:

1. Pull the crown to position 3 and adjust the time to 6 "o clock". By doing so, The mechanical gear is free (that's how I understand it.).
2. pull back the crown to position 2 to adjust the date one day prior to the date of intended use.
3. Then, pull the crown again to position 3 to adjust the time until the date change and you have the correct time.
4. Pull back the crown to position 1 and wind it 20X counter-clockwise.

If this is correct, all mechanical watches should be set following this procedure?
I'm a newbie and any help with this matter is highly appreciated.

Many thanks!

That sounds about right. There is a 'danger zone' between 8pm and 3am on watches with a quick set date (like yours) that can cause damage to the quick set date. By setting the time to 6:00 you can't be in that zone. By setting the date to the previous day and then winding the time forward you can make sure that you get am and pm correct - again you shouldn't wind time backwards through the danger zone so this avoids that as well.

The only thing that sounds odd is step 4 - to wind the watch you would turn the crown away from you, not sure that I would call that counter-clockwise. A full wind is considered to be 40 turns rather than 20 and you can't overwind an automatic so may as well go ahead and wind to make sure that it has a full reserve which wearing the watch will maintain.

Roff,

Thank you for clarifying step 4. You are right, it should be "away from you", sorry if I got you confused.

Another question is, are there any downside if you seldom use an automatic watch?

Again, Many thanks!

Not really, you just have to set it each time if you don't wear it. Wearing or not wearing is not going to affect the service window which is based mainly on the aging of oils so no difference to if it was running all of the time.

If you don't want to set it each time that you wear it then either manually wind it once every 24 hours (30 turns) or put it on a winder.

Roff,

Many thanks for your response.