The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I send my 2011 Aerospace in for a battery replacement and was quoted $110 for the basic service + $57.78 for a new crown because the crown gasket needs to be replaced for water resistance. My understanding was that basic service included changing all seals and pressure testing. Am I right to request the crown be included with the service?

http://www.breitling.com/multimedia/pdf ... v-1200.pdf

No.

Crown would not ordinarily need replacing as part of seals / gaskets replacement so something else is happening that requires the crown itself to be replaced.

Welcome to BreitlingSource.

Thanks for the response. I have attached the quote. My understanding based off the wording is that its just the seal for water resistance.

The quote says crown which implies Breitling feel the crown is damaged and needs replacing to ensure water resistance, it is not a normal service item.

I just emailed BCAN back and asked the following:



Their response was:

Just a follow up, I questioned why it wasn't included then with the service and was told:



Strange that Breitling doesn't include a part that is apparently needs to be replaced at each battery change in the cost of the battery change.

It doesn't have to be replaced at every battery change, it has to be replaced when it is worn or damaged. For the vast majority of people that is nowhere near every battery change.

In other words bump the bill up like they do with the hands!


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Nothing like the hands. Those are single use items and have never been claimed to be anything else. You don't need to look at hands to determine they need replacing, they are replaced as a matter of course. Crown is only replaced if it needs to be changed which is in only a small percentage of services.

Breitling sometimes insist on replacing the hands even though the lume hasn't degraded so I've been led to believe, not sure what you mean by single use items, there another functioning part of the Watch like a crown!

I'm a believer of letting the hands age with the dial, that's unless the customer wants them replacing of course!


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Hands are friction fit, when they are set in place on the arbors the hole stretches slightly. The movement cannot be removed from the case without first removing the hands which will then not be capable of being replaced because the friction caused by the arbor stretching the hole will no longer occur - hence they are single use and must be replaced during servicing. If they aren't replaced the hands could easily fall off the arbor with a slight knock.

By contrast, the crown is affixed to the crown stem and the whole assembly can be removed from the case intact (except in the case of a front loader where the crown stem is split to allow complete removal). It can then be reassembled when the watch is recased with no need to replace it unless damaged.

But you see hand sets for vintage Rolex Submariners ect for sale? (So they are useless)

And vintage Watches with original hands that would have long since stopped without a service?


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You say the movement can not be removed from the case without removing the hands? surely you mean removing the dial from the movement without removing the hands?


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Semantics - the watch cannot be serviced without removing the hands.

Vintage handsets are used for vintage watches because those are the only original option available, not the case with modern watches. And none of this is remotely relevant to the OP's issue with the crown (which was my point when you made the comparison).

I received my watch back today from service/polishing. One thing I noticed is that the dial/ring around the watch that rotates in one direction seems to be looser and can be moved up/down/left/right about 1mm without rotating the dial. I don't recall this being the case before. Could this be adjusted at a Breitling store?