The Breitling Watch Source Forums

In June of this year, I bought a new Galactic 41 at the Breitling Boutique in London while I was on a business trip there. (I live in the US.). This is my first really high end watch, and I love the way it looks. I also liked the way it ran initially.

In early September, I noticed that it was running fast so I clocked it over a 10 day period, and it was running an average of 20 seconds a day fast. Recently, it has gotten far worse. Over the last 3 days, it is running over 3 minutes fast per day. Obviously, something is wrong that needs to be corrected, and I have a few questions that I hope you guys can help me with.

(1) Any idea what could be causing this, and is there a fix for it other than sending it back to Breitling?

(2) I assume that Breitling USA will honor the warranty even though I bought the watch in the UK. Is this correct?

(3) Should my local AD take care of sending it to Breitling even though I did not purchase the watch there or will I have to do that myself?

(4) On average, how long should I expect Breitling to have my watch before returning it?

I am very disappointed and frustrated that a watch that I paid this much money for is having these types of problems so soon after the purchase, but I know these things happen occasionally. Hopefully, Breitling will make it right, and I won't be without my watch for too long. I am just glad I didn't purchase a gray market watch since I at least have the warranty to fall back on.

Thanks in advance for your input. This is such an awesome forum.

Fix will take about 3 seconds. Dollars to donuts it's magnetised, any watchmaker with a demagnetiser can fix it in literally 3 seconds. If that doesn't address it then warranty is global, no idea what current BUSA warranty turnaround times are.

2) Correct. I have bought new B from other country as well and then got it serviced under warranty. As long as you have the original doc's (warranty cards and AD's certificate) then you are good.

3) If you send it yourself then take insurance for MSRP and add few k's for buffer. My UPS shipping with $5k insurance is about $75 (to BUSA). Yes it's not cheapest but even local UPS store handless that specific package with "white cotton gloves" so to speak.

4) On past 4 months I have serviced my 2 Avengers and on each case BUSA quoted 8 weeks. One service was 8 weeks and another was 6 weeks.

As Roff says, try de-magnetising first. That is, don't go to a small or clueless AD who might send it off without further inspection to BUSA who might sit on it for x months before doing the 3-second fix which a dealer with an on-site watchmaker might effect.

My money is on it being magnetised.

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"It is just a matter of time!"

Thanks for all the input, guys. It sounds like demagnetizing is the way to go.

It looks like I can get a demagnetizer on eBay for less than 10 bucks, and there are instructional videos on YouTube. Is there any reason not to go that route as opposed to taking it to a watchmaker? It looks like a pretty simple process. If I am not successful doing it myself, I would still get a watchmaker to try to demagnetize it before sending it to BUSA.

Nothing wrong with the ones on eBay, but unless you plan on magnetising your watches on a regular basis it's unnecessary - why wait two weeks for an eBay delivery when you can get it done tomorrow?

Good point! Thanks again. I'll let you know how it turns out.

You guys were right. I just took the watch to a local watchmaker, and it was magnetized. He charged me 45 bucks to demagnetize it which seems excessive for a 10 second job, but I got it done without having to wait which is worth something.

Thanks again for your help.

That's a rip off, most watchmakers I know wouldn't even charge.

That's kind of what I was thinking, but I didn't have anything to compare it to. Lesson learned. I will probably go the eBay route and do it myself if this happens again.

I don't have a problem paying somebody for the use of their unique skills or expensive equipment, but the demagnetizer that this guy used looks just like the ones you can get on eBay for less than 10 bucks, and it took him less than 10 seconds to do it.

Excuse me for asking but was the watch demagnetized with case back off or not? Some watchmakers say that demagnetizing a watch with case back on its place won't result in real demagnetizing but hey, getting magnetized is also thru the case back... every pro input is welcome.
Robert

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Chronomat 41 BEB, Steelfish Chrono BEB, 2x Grand Premier, Chrono Cockpit 39 mm, Aerospace Avantage 79362
IWC 3706, 3705, 376706, 371928
Sinn 103 plexy
For sale: Sinn 356 II, Porsche Design Titan Chrono Valjoux
Wanted: Breitling Blackbird 13353 on bracelet

A 'proper' demagnetiser does not require removal of the caseback. The older ones are better than the cheap Chinese ones available today because they created stronger fields, and personally I prefer the pass through version. The one on my watchmaker's bench is likely from the 50s and still works fine.

It would be nice to define a proper magnetic field (A/m or Gauss or whatever) from which upwards a demagnetizer is worth buying... unfortunately most of us cannot pick one form the fifties... what's more many (and I) have some watches that have soft iron inner case, which do not get magnetized too easily but if yes, demagnetizing is harder too. (I mean my IWC Fliegerchronos.)

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Chronomat 41 BEB, Steelfish Chrono BEB, 2x Grand Premier, Chrono Cockpit 39 mm, Aerospace Avantage 79362
IWC 3706, 3705, 376706, 371928
Sinn 103 plexy
For sale: Sinn 356 II, Porsche Design Titan Chrono Valjoux
Wanted: Breitling Blackbird 13353 on bracelet

The guy who I went to did not take the case back off to demagnetize the watch, and the demagnetizer that he used looked like the ones you can get on eBay.