The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I bought a Colt automatic in 2003 and it has worked perfectly until I left it in for a service at a certified Breitling dealer in Sweden [EDIT. Actually, there was a slight problem the month before I left it in for service: It would loose time quite a lot, like up to 1-2 hours. This happened twice before servicing. I dont know really if this was a pre-cursor to my watch stopping regularly, but that is the reason I left it in for service]. Since I left it in for a the service, my watch now stops after taking it off at night. I always take my watch off at night and usually leave it off for 8 hours and sometimes up to 12 hours at weekends. This has been fine for 5 years. Now, my watch has stops quite regularly, like 2 or 3 times a month minimum since having had it serviced in November, and not just at weekends.

Is there a limit for how long you should be able to reasonably leave the watch immobile before it stops?

Is 10-12 hours unreasonabe?

Am I able to do anything myself to "wind it up" somehow so that it takes longer before it stops whilst immobile?

I am thinking of sending my watch to Breitling in Sweden to get it looked at as I have lost faith in the reseller that services it, but I do not think that their guarantee will apply in that case and I will probably end up paying for the servicing.

Thanks for any advice.

Andrew

First off welcome to BreitlingSource!

Secondly, and probably of no interest to you, I just noticed that this is the 10,000th topic started here - pretty cool.

Now to your problem..........

There is definitely something wrong - the power reserve should be 42 hours on a full power reserve, and even if you didn't wear the watch enough to give it a full reserve you should still be getting a lot more than 12 hours. The fact that it only started after servicing is definitely a problem.

If this was a proper Breitling service then there is a 12 month warranty on the work, but it sounds like the store did their own service, not necessarily an official Breitling service, so that might not help - I would definitely demand that they address it though, or even pay for the Breitling service if they can't solve the problem.

You can wind the watch yourself. Unscrew the crown and then wind it forward (clockwise) from the position that it goes to after unscrewing. A full wind is 40 turns, 30 is plenty for a 24 hour period. But of course that's only a temporary solution.

I always count 40 winds when it's stopped, seems to give it a decent power reserve.

_________________

TITANIUM AVENGER SEAWOLF- [YELLOW DIAL] -TITANIUM PRO II

Cool! Do I get a toy?

Jeez, noobs

Better ask admin that, but in the meantime, have another free smilie:

Thanks for the info. It was an official Breitling distributor and they did do the servicing themselves. There is a 12 month warranty on the service, but I had to leave it back with them like 3 times due to problems that appeared after the service. The second time I picked it up (the crown would not turn properly and the date only changed every second full revolution: this had not happened in 5 years and appeared directly after servicing, so I left it back the day after) it was scratched to hell all over the watch, including a scratch on the minute hand...dont know how they managed that one. So I had to leave it back and ask for it to be polished and they refused! and tried to tell me that I was responsible for the scratches....until I explained that I just picked it up 15 minutes ago and that they had just serviced and polished it and Id only had it one day in between.

I think I will ask Breitling if they will honour their resellers warranty as I am very unhappy with the quality of the service at that reseller.

How do I wind it up by the way? There is no mention in my manual.

Thanks,

I didnt read your full post, sorry...ok I unwind the crown they turn it 40 revolutions, but where do I unwind it to? before the date change position, or to the 'set-time' position or unscrew it to the first position, before the date change position?

Before the date change.

how long is that solution likely to last me? Is it still worth sending my watch back again do you think?

Definitely worth getting it addressed properly.

You can wind it that way for ever if you want, I just meant that it was a temporary solution because you shouldn't have to do it.

Welcome aboard, finite9.
If I understood it well, you didn't wind it manually in the first time to gain the full reserve.
I think this might be the only problem.

Never even considered that - I just assumed that the AD would have wound it before returning - maybe a foolish assumption by the sounds of this AD!

Sometimes the easiest solutions are right ones.

well I have wound it up now (40 turns). I will see how it goes and try to leave it more than 12 hours this weekend.

I had sort of guessed a few months ago that maybe I could wind it up, but was not sure at all if it would work or if I was doing it right, and I only wound it maybe 10 revolutions, but now when you've all told me how to wind it I realise I did do it right, but just not enough.

thanks for all the help.

turned it 40 times, left it immobile for 17 hours and it is still running Thankyou for your help. I'll probably left it this long every weekend to see if this time was just a fluke.