The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi all,

First-time poster and new Breitling owner, with a bit of a newbie question. (I posted a variation of this over on the Breitling forum at WUS, but no one's responded yet, so I figured I would try here as well...)

Two weeks ago I took delivery of my first automatic watch - an A13352 Chronomat, which is the first of a modest collection that I'm building up (really love it so far!). I set it "to a T" according to the instruction manual, synchronized with time.is, and found that it keeps perfect time throughout the day.

The morning after the first full day of wear, I noticed that it had lost about a second or two overnight, which I recognize is normal. As such, I've been setting it every morning, giving a few winds through the crown just to be on the safe side. I don't wear it on the weekend, so I have to fully wind it come Monday morning.

This past Monday, I wound the watch (~40 times, like the manual says). But about 20 seconds in, the second hand stopped sweeping. I became very concerned, moved the crown around a little, and let it sit -- this did not fix the problem. A minute or so later, I came back and it was working again. I set the time and went about the day.

Every day since then, I have noticed that the watch is now losing one to two seconds during the day, after a few hours. This worries me because before Monday (when it stopped), it tended to stay precise during the day, and the only time loss was, as mentioned, overnight. Today I noticed that it lost an additional second to two overnight for a total of 3-4 seconds in the course of 24 hours.

As such, I figured I would ask around here -- is this normal? Should I be concerned? Is this something that regulation or adjustment could fix? The dealer from whom I bought it said that it was serviced prior to sale and provided a one-year warranty. Again, I know that -4/+6 seconds a day is normal for a COSC-certified watch, but given the sudden change in the past few days, thought that you guys would know much more than me and provide advice, or at the very least some peace of mind.

Many thanks in advance!

-Ron

Welcome to BreitlingSource.

If you are going to start worrying about a second or two on a mechanical watch you are going to be doing a lot of worrying! Mechanical watches will always lose or gain based on a million different circumstances - position, movement, temperature, amount of power reserve, etc, etc, etc. Additionally, your watch is going through a new usage cycle with you as the new owner and is going to take several weeks to settle, until that time you will see more volatility. It is still within COSC specs so absolutely nothing to be concerned over at this point. You may need to consider a service soon if it has been a while since the last one, but let's see how it settles first.

Can't really comment on the one time stopping as it seems to have been a one off right now, if it happens again then it likely is an indication that a service is needed.

Many thanks, Roffensian -- I'll keep my eye on how it settles and try not to worry for now!

I suggest that you get a winder and put the watch on it when you are not wearing it. The rotor then keeps the watch wound.

It is much better than winding it with the keyless works. It keeps a more uniform pressure on the going train and it prevents the mainspring from being fully unwound. And, BTW, "unbreakable" mainsprings can be broken by too much pressure on the stem when the spring is fully wound. I have replaced several over the years.

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Thanks, onewatchnut -- I will look into getting a winder.