The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I recently received a chronomat evolution, which looks great. I followed the user hand book for winding and setting the date time. Recently I stopped wearing it for about 3 days and it stopped. I have reset the date and time and turned a further 40 winds. Is this normal? Is the minute hand meant to be in continuous motion ie using the chronograph? or is it meant to be set at 0000 until required. I am not sure if the chronograph is what requires the 40 winds as as I left it running is gradulally unwound itself? Its appears to work whether the minute hand is in use or not. Any advice appreciated.

Hi, when you say minute hand, do you actually mean the second hand? (the minute hand for the chronograph is the top sub-dial). It does not have to be continuously running, you can stop the stopwatch and reset it and it will just rest at the 12 o'clock position. The 40 winds are for the power reserve for the entire watch, not just the chronograph. Normal power reserve is 42 hours but while you wear it, it will be constantly wound full due to your own arm movements.
I personally keep the chronograph second hand rested at 12 o'clock but some people like to leave it running as they prefer the sight of it sweeping around. Hope this all helps.

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Chronomat Evolution
B-1

None of the chronograph hands move unless the action is triggered. The seconds hand that you see moving is the running seconds for the watch. The chrono seconds is the central hand that stays at 12 as Britling says.

Britling has already answered on the power reserve. If you are unsure on the operation be very sure to read and obey the rules in the manual about when not to use the quick set date and wind the time backwards

Seconds hand is at Nine oclock on this watch.

If you put your automatic watch done for 3 days and not on a winder yes it should stop telling time and you will need to reset when you wear again.

Winding is not neccessary though, just give the watch a shake to start her off set the time, date and you should be go to go.
Winding shouldn't do any harm but it could so why risk it and 40 winds is definitely overkill for no reason.
This is an auto watch not a handwind and works on motion.

Manual winding an automatic cannot harm the watch - why would you say that?

And wearing a watch with a fully unwound mainspring is never going to be enough to wind it to a full power reserve, so a full mainspring (40 turns) isn't overkill at all.

I disagree. Constantly hand winding when not neccessary could put a strain on the gears and eventually years later they can wear down as a result causing a big repair bill. My point is not that this would happen as I have no documented proof, it is that there is no need for it.
A manual Panerai or something like that would be a different story where you should fully wind the watch each time.

Maybe if you pay for servicing at BSC every 3 years you don't have to worry about strain on the gears?
A couple of winds is enough to get her going, I have never had a problem with just a shake of my auto watches if stopped and then it builds up reserve through my wear during the day, maybe not full reserve but a minimum of 24 hours or more which is enough for my needs.

I agree with Roff on this. An automatic watch has exactly the same gears and mechanics inside as a manual wind, only with the addition of the self-winding mechanism. If manual winding was in any way harmful, it would be very simple for watch manufacturers to omit the manual winding assembly. In fact very cheap, mass produced, simple Seiko autos for example have no manual wind option to keep cost of production down to a minimum.

It would take many many years for there to be any noticeable wear to the winding mechanism, and considering a mechanical watch will need servicing every 5 years or so anyway (irrespective of manual winding or not), I can't see there's a problem at all. If you were to manually wind an auto a couple of times a week if you weren't wearing it very much for example, the winding mechanism would still only be in motion a tiny fraction of the amount that say the escapement or balance wheel will move just through normal use. Wear is negligible.

It's designed to be used or else there would be a note in the manual saying, "Even though this watch allows you to manual wind it, please don't do it very often as it can damage the watch".

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Driver8

Site Moderator

If we are going to get into technical discussions on this like wear of parts then I can make the case that not manually winding an automatic watch can do more damage, more quickly than winding it. The castle gear in the keyless works as well as the winding gears are oiled parts in a mechanical watch - and if you don't action those parts then there is a danger of the oil breaking down and not doing the job that it was designed to do.

I would also make the case that multiple cycles of the mainspring from fully wound to fully unwound will shorten the useful life and lead to a shorter maintenance cycle than keeping the watch at least partially wound.

I run the majority of my watches all the time and don't have enough rotators for all the automatics so wind some of them daily. It's never been a problem and I am doing nothing to damage them by winding them.

Again you have given me food for thought . It never occured to me that the winding gears also need to be used to lubricate them.

At the end of months having 30 days it is necessary to wind the watch forward . If the watch winder was turned off a couple of days beforehand would it benefit the mainspring to be allowed to wind down completely ?

Resetting the watch would require it to be wound so that would lubricate the winding gears. But would this in your opinion be enough given that it would only be necessary 5 times a year .

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Breitling Superocean Steelfish
Breitling Evolution Chronomat
Breitling Montbrillant Datora
Rolex GMT Master 11 BLNR
Rolex Submariner

And there you have it. Well said Roff. I did recently have a problem with manually winding my Fortis. I believe this to be a problem with the Fortis and not the manually winding. Same movement, 7750, that Breitling uses, although I am convinced the quality is nowhere close.

R/

Many thanks to all who have commented and advised on the care and maintenance of my chronomat evolution. I have a better understanding of the winding mechanism and what needs to be done to maintain longevity of he watch.

A good watch winder will allow the watch to partially wind down anyway by having 'rest' cycles - that's more than enough for the mainspring - there is no need to let it run all the way down.

Changing the watch at the end of short months will exercise the castle gear - the amount will depend on whether you use the quickset date or wind time forward, but it won't do anything for the winding mechanism which connects the crown stem to the mainspring barrel and only moves when manually winding the watch - it's two wheels. These are very heavy duty wheels (for a watch at any rate), and the idea that they would 'wear out' is unrealistic - I have a number of 125+ year old pocket watches that still have their original winding gears - and they are obviously manual wind.

To avoid oil breakdown I would suggest that just an occasional few winds will be enough - if it's easier to remember when you change the date and when you adjust for daylight savings time twice a year then that's likely enough. Remember that there is a slip clutch in an automatic so that it cannot be overwound - a fully wound mainspring will simply slip in the barrel so manually winding a fully wound watch will do no damage but will circulate the oils around the winding gears.

+1

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1809 Cosmonaute
1903 Navi
Navi Olympus
Super Avenger

I'm learning

Me too. Thank you

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Breitling Superocean Steelfish
Breitling Evolution Chronomat
Breitling Montbrillant Datora
Rolex GMT Master 11 BLNR
Rolex Submariner