The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Sadly, my daily wear is now an Apple Watch 4 (and for the past 3 years a series 1) and my Aerospace Avantage/Co Pilot seldom gets worn. It lives in the drawer of my winder with my wife’s Colt Oceane ... and we both have had the issue when we have come to wear it, batteries on the way out or flat.

BUK now charges an eye-watering amount to do very little intervention to change the battery (£140 and £95 for the Aerospace/co-pilot), and I have just had an almighty row with them over my Aerospace ... it went in for a full overhaul in late 2017 and both watch and co-pilot batteries lasted less than 2 years. Sent it in and they claimed the watch had never been in to them before for work (so what are the stamps in my warranty book then) and they sent me a pro-forma invoice for over £700 of work ‘required’. Anyhow, cut a long story short, after getting a bit shouty, they agreed that “something had gone seriously wrong” with their processes and procedures and they would sort it out for me as a gesture of goodwill - they basically redid the overhaul!

So, I decided I would get shot of all of my quartz battery Breitlings ... can’t take a joke, shouldn’t have joined eh? Roll forward, been offered a B55 Exospace at a good price, brand new.

Now, I’m interested because theoretically (possible firmware issues aside) I won’t ‘need’ to get BUK to change the batteries every couple of years.

My questions ... all the B55 Exospace I’ve seen appear to have BLUE hands with the Titanium case ... the one offered has silver hands ... can’t find any info on the Breitling site about whether hand colour was an option. Does anyone know?

Also, does anyone know the bezel protector number for the B55 ... as per, the darned AD has taken it off and it’s been bunged in a box with loads of others and he doesn’t want to hunt through to find one that fits. If I had the number I could get him to locate it in the box.

TIA

_________________
Have
2019 B55 Exospace on Titanium bracelet
2014 SuperAvenger II Military LE
Had
2013 Avenger Seawolf SS yellow Arabic dial
2010 Aerospace Avantage black dial & Co-pilot
2007 Aerospace Repetition Minutes
2003 Superocean
2001 Chronospace

Based on my experiences with the B55 I would go with the B50, still chargeable, better battery life and no buggy firmware.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

It was the ‘connected’ function for block flight times that I was attracted to, being a pilot ... it’s what I used the co-pilot for (yep, used as intended, not just an ornament) and I realise there have been ‘issues’, but my view is that under warranty if there are, then BUK fix it, and if they can’t, they replace it. AIUI the B50 has a basic flight timer function but isn’t connected to an app?

I don’t have a lot of time now for Breitling, but I still love the look of the professional series (I’ve had Breitlings since the first Chronospace). I am hoping I’m one of the lucky ones, and can’t imagine they are still selling them if they all have problems ... do they?

_________________
Have
2019 B55 Exospace on Titanium bracelet
2014 SuperAvenger II Military LE
Had
2013 Avenger Seawolf SS yellow Arabic dial
2010 Aerospace Avantage black dial & Co-pilot
2007 Aerospace Repetition Minutes
2003 Superocean
2001 Chronospace

I would like to hear your views on the B55 if you get one and use it as intended for a month or so.

I have tried over 9 of them over an 18 month period and non of them worked as intended 100% of the time.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

Sure thing.

So, what actually ARE the issues? Understand some people have had firmware update problems, but haven’t actually found much else. Is the firmware now ‘stable’ or still buggy? I’m wondering if it’s an app issue rather than a firmware problem per se.

Doesn’t fill me with confidence and wonder just how they can sell the things if they are quite so bad. Not like it’s a £50 Chinese Apple Watch knockoff is it? It’s supposed to be a ‘timepiece for professionals’ ...

I kind of wish the Apple Watch was more useful in the ‘office’ but you have to make a concerted effort to tilt your wrist to light up the display, not always possible.

_________________
Have
2019 B55 Exospace on Titanium bracelet
2014 SuperAvenger II Military LE
Had
2013 Avenger Seawolf SS yellow Arabic dial
2010 Aerospace Avantage black dial & Co-pilot
2007 Aerospace Repetition Minutes
2003 Superocean
2001 Chronospace

Main issue is one of repeated disconnection, once connected the app works great. For your flight functions you may be happy with them, the phone/message side is where the bulk of the issues occur with random functions stop working and the watch drops the connection but does not reconnect without manual intervention.

There are a few threads on this forum re the B55, have a search and you will get a sense of the frustration the B55 and Breitling support deliver.

I must say I love the look and feel of the B55 but the support is very poor, plus for a supposed in house movement with a £5k+ price tag why does it only come with 2 years warranty?

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

Hi there - realise this thread is a year old now but...

How did you get on/are you getting on with your B55? I also work in aerospace and had one last year which I bought out flying out of LHR T5. Over the following 8 days I went LHR-EZE, EZE-SCL, SCL-YYZ, YYZ-IND, IND-ORD, ORD-LHR.

By the time I got back it had basically started to go wrong with the upper screen pixels fading in and out if it was a) cold, or b) you very gently rotated the crown. Like there was a thermal issue of some description and an earth issue on the crown. Oh, and it point blank stopped working with the app on either apple or android.

I took it back to the retailer in LHR and basically said I wasn't interested in an exchange, I wanted my money back. I don't want to pay that much money and wonder if it's going to break today, tomorrow, be away at repair when I need it etc etc.

I've always been a huge Breitling advocate and have had an Aerospace Avantage which I eventually moved on and long term a Chronomat Balckbird with is nearly 20 years old now.

The B55 would in theory be the perfect tool for what I do but I saved myself £5,500 and bought a G-Shock instead which has been exemplary and offers more functionality. The only things it doesn't do are block hours and the countdown timer only does hours and minutes, not seconds (and won't count up so no CDCU).

I'm still gutted about it now. I don't mind cost if it represents value but I really worry that of late Brietling have moved from 'Insturments for Professionals' to 'Instruments for people who want to look like Professionals'.

And I guess that make sense. If only a tiny minority use the watch as a genuine tool, you can make far better margins by ratcheting up the sale price, trading on the heritage, but not building the same level of quality in. Who's going to know? So few of us actually punish them in a cockpit or aerospace environment.

I do occasionally look at them (B55) and think maybe it was a proper one off and I want to buy in and believe in the function, form and quality argument but then I look at my G-Shock and it just... works.

Would be interested to get your feedback on it if you've worked it too.

_________________
2019 G-Shock GG-B100-1A3ER
CYMA WWW (unrestored, late grandfathers)
2014 G-Shock Rangeman
2003 A13353 Chronomat Blackbird
2007 Aerospace Avantage (sold)

Sounds like you had a narrow escape, I got mine refunded as well, still love the look but too unreliable.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

Was ready to pull the trigger several times but due to all the problems I heard here and other forums didn’t want to take the risk.. such a pity. On Chronext there are occasionally good deals , you can get a brand new one now for USD 4K (black version with strap ) and regularly they still have the steel ones .. but even at that price I didn’t want to take the risk.
The B55 is now not produced anymore although still on Breitling website , like the aerospace. It can however still be repaired by Breitling in there service center in Besançon (France ). Got an email from Breitling confirming this.
It is now quite an “old“ watch and feel the best choice is to wait for a new watch in the professional line ... of that happens one day ..