The Breitling Watch Source Forums

[EDIT: The events described in this post here may imply a problem with Breitling Service Quality. As it turned out, this was absolutely not the case, it was simply my negligence]

My Monty just came back from Switzerland after 2 months of pampering at Breitling SA.
I have decided to do some simple tests today and to my great disappointment, it is going back tomorrow

Here is a bit of a picture essay illustrating the problem. Maybe someone will have some ideas what is wrong with this baby. Roff, hint, hint, nudge, nudge
Oh, I am looking for suggestions that are slightly more sophisticated than "It is running 3 hours per day fast" as I have figured that much out

First picture, taken about 5 seconds after the Monty was sync started with the Timex at 16:45:00, nothing strange here.
The small hand at the top sub dial shows seconds.


The second picture taken at 16:45:45 (45 secs after sync start)
The Monty is taking a clear lead.


Third picture taken at 16:47:00 (2 min after sync start)
Monty is 15 seconds ahead


Now lets put the baby on a timegrapher before anyone tries to suggest that the Timex is running slow.
Of course we can not put the Timex on a timegrapher so lets put my Navi 01 on it first just to make sure the cheap toy works OK-ish. The cheap toy here being the timegrapher not the Navi 01

Looks OK to me.


The Monty however is clearly all over the place and even showing a beat rate of 36,000 BPH (!!!???)
It is definitely going back tomorrow

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"It is just a matter of time!"

Dollars to donuts it's magnetized.

The rate from the timing machine shows that the escapement is going way too fast which is usually an indication of a hairspring that is way too short. Theoretically that could be caused by the servicing department using g the wrong escapement, but that's highly unlikely and would have been picked up in testing before it left. When a watch becomes magnetized the spiral in the hairspring 'sticks' to itself effectively shortening it. Before sending it back I would stop by an AD with a watchmaker and have him or her pass it through a demagnetiser. It will take 5 seconds and should fix if immediately.

sounds - no surprise - like very, very reasonable advice.
and, on a positive note, you got to grab that beautiful Full Moon pic, Wes !

Yes, why I did not think of it??
I actually do have a demagnetizer that I bought at the Hong Kong watch fair last year and have not had the chance to use it yet. May have to give it a try. Can't really harm it. Right?

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"It is just a matter of time!"

Won't harm it at all. If it is a pass through machine then make sure that you pass the watch through smoothly a d as close to the middle as possible. If it is a 'tray' style then put the watch on it before turning it on and turn it off before removing the watch.

OK, now I feel really stupid. As sad as it is, it is true.
Let my stupidity be a lesson to others.
The Monty spent several hours today in my bag, right next to my iPad.
My iPad cover has this flap with a magnetic strip inside it so that when the cover is closed, the iPad goes into sleep mode, screen turns off, etc..
I even remember posting pictures of it some months ago here advising not to place their watch on top of iPads on their bed side tables for the night



Two minutes with this gizmo:



Problem solved, looks much better now



Thank you guys!

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"It is just a matter of time!"

But a happy outcome. The funny thing is wessa, that it was your warning all those months ago, about the magnetic strip on ipad covers, that made me take the cover off my tablet. Physician heal thyself!

It's great that it turned out to be an easy DIY fix.

I wonder if that is the problem with mine. A few weeks ago, I put my watch on and discovered it was an hour fast. Reset it, but by the end of the day it was 4 hours fast. Tried letting it wind down completely before trying again. Need to take it in to the shop I bought it from next week
(superocean GMT)

The indication is generally the gain appearing suddenly rather than gradually.

If the watch is gaining 4 hours a day then it is very likely magnetized. Few other problems could cause that extreme a variation.

Wessa, Roff

I have a blue demagnetizer like shown above what procedure did you use to demagnetize using it?

Roff, when you said "tray type" did you mean like the blue one above?

My demagnetizer did not come with instructions so I have been hunting on Internet for proper procedures.
Thanks in advance
Brez


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

_________________
Cheers
Brez

Aerospace
Airwolf CF-18 Limited Edition
TrancOcean Chronograph LE (mercury silver dial, brown croc, folding clasp)

To funny wessa, admittedly I probably would have reacted the same way..


Glad it worked out though, nothing worse than that feeling you get when these things happen with valuables.

That is a tray type (for want of a better name), that's the modern Chinese style, the vintage ones tend to be cylinders that you pass the watch through. It's simply an electric motor that creates a magnetic field with continuously reversing polarity. It's pretty easy to use as long as you keep the watch centred in the field. For this type all that you do is put the watch on the tray with the demagnetiser off, turn it on for 2 - 3 seconds, turn it off and remove the watch. That's it!

Roff
Thanks. I'll redemagnetize using your instruction. I did not do it that way before. I'll let you guys know how it worked!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

_________________
Cheers
Brez

Aerospace
Airwolf CF-18 Limited Edition
TrancOcean Chronograph LE (mercury silver dial, brown croc, folding clasp)