The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I discovered to my HORROR that the NOS Cockpit, 4 years old but not pre-owned, was at +20 sec/day on Saturday, day 2.5 with a watch that's been sitting for several years. That dropped all the way to +12 sec/day yesterday. Should I hope to see it do even better over the next few days? Obviously the concern is not a simple regulation which my AD can do, but a full service at BUSA due to age and sitting so long, but this isn't my first NOS piece this old, an Omega and another Breitling, and I didn't have this issue.

What think you wise WIS's?


Edit- I did give it a full manual wind Sunday just in case the "kid" who sized the bracelet and set the time didn't give it a full wind and the tension on the mainspring was low.

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SHARKMAN

It's certainly possible. The inconsistent timekeeping may indicate that the oils had migrated and are now becoming better distributed through the running of the watch which will likely continue to occur for a few days. That said, if the watch has been sitting without being run at all then a service is possible, especially if storage conditions have been less than ideal. I'm assuming that the AD's vault is climate controlled, but if not that could be an issue in Arizona (assuming a local watch).

Just a thought -- before I would reach any firm conclusions and do anything drastic, I would have the watch de-magnetized, just to see how that might affect things.

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Cheers,
Jim

They are climate controlled. I'll see how it does over the next few days. Thanks for the input. At +20 my heart sunk. At +12 I saw some hope. Had it started at +12 I wouldn't have given it a second thought.

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SHARKMAN

Over about three months I think it might just get there. I had an NOS SuperOcean which went from about +8 to its current, settled, +2, within a couple of months. As you say you're starting further away but at least 20 down to 12 is a good start!

Re the slow settling of Breitling hairsprings, there's an explanation in post 7 @

http://forums.watchuseek.com/f20/settli ... 22748.html

- on which I'd be interested to hear the forum wisdom.

I assume that you mean post 8 on page 2 - http://forums.watchuseek.com/f20/settli ... post124844.

That explanation is accurate, but it's not the full story. In Tom's case we have a watch that has been sitting, probably in the same position, for an extended period of time so we have to deal with oil migration that is then redistributed when the watch is run regularly. The nivarox hairspring is still going to 'soften' (not a great explanation, but consistent with the explanation on WUS), but that is going to take weeks not hours, and isn't going to affect the rate by 8 seconds from one day to the next.

Interesting read, but all the Breitling's I have purchased have run within COSC specs right out of the box. This one is quickly settling in to COSC specs, in fact it may be there as it is dead on with the atomic clock over the last 6 hours. Nothing has changed since Friday/Saturday - temp consistent, humidity consistent, on my wrist except to shower, activities consistent. Certainly the oils are "warming" up throughout the gear train. The one thing I did before the dramatic slowing from 20+ sec/day was give it a full wind. For all I know the "kid" (they simply call the guy in the back who sizes bracelets "The Kid") may have wound it just until the second hand started to move which would be a couple winds. Normally when I get a watch home I give it a full wind just in case. I forgot this time. Seems odd I would see such a dramatic drop, but that's perfectly ok by me no matter the reason - I'd take alien abduction as a reason if need be.

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SHARKMAN

Likely not that, but possible I guess.

Am confused. We appear to be talking about the same post re the hairspring, but for me it's at post 7, marked '#7' on page 1 of 3, by 'rbt'. [Page 2 starts @ post 11.]

Same here.

Weird.

For me each page starts at 1 and the original loan no was to the first page not the specific post. I assume that my response was to the correct post that you were referring to?

Yes.
It is weird, I also see it as 7th post on the first page of three pages.

+5 over the last 24 hours. Weird. Good, but weird.

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SHARKMAN

Aliens, definitely.

And I've been plagued with an idea which solves cold fusion.

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SHARKMAN