I am the kind of person that can never have enough information about something and once I start looking I tend to become somewhat obsessed. So after spending the last few weeks looking over hundreds of forum posts, YouTube videos, and websites and not really finding the full answer to what I was looking for I decided I would post this in the hopes it answers questions for someone else in the future.
My Chronomat 44 (MB01108S) is currently in the Canada service center and the work has started.
Information on my watch:- Chronomat 44 Blacksteel Canada Limited Edition (x of 100).
- B01 Movement
- Purchased as Pre-Owned Certified from an AD in Vancouver in 2018.
- No evidence of pervious service in the warranty book
I first saw this watch at the 2015 Abbotsford Airshow and was very much in love, but the 10K price tag was something I was not able to push through my appropriations committee (my wife) in 2015. That years airshow was the first time I got to see the Breitling Jet team and I really wanted to get the watch to mark this off the list.
Fast forward 3 years and by chance I was in Time and Gold in Vancouver and saw the watch in their Certified Pre-Owned display and it was perfect and the price tag was deemed expectable in committee (there may have been some shameless pleading)
Issue(s) that made me send the watch in for Service:This all started 4 months ago.- The watch was losing large chucks of time and appeared to be stopped.
- This would occur even after winding the watch 50 plus times.
- I ran a "Test" to check the reserve and after 3 days the watch was still pretty accurate.
- The "Test" made me think I was not moving enough or winding the watch enough.
Turns out the watch was not in fact stopping.- Just the Minute and Hour hands were stopping.
- The watch was still running (small second hand still happy)
- The Hour and min hands were now out of sync
- The watch was VERY much due for a full service being almost 9 years old.
What information was\am I looking for?- The fact the hour and min hands were stopping and now out of sync leads me to believe the cannon pinion is the issue, but I have not had much luck finding any example of this online.
- There are some reports of issues with the older ETA movements but nothing I could find on the B01
- When talking to the Service department they were not really able to tell me much.
- Movement "Dry" was all I was told, this seems pretty common in many reports on service from Breitling.
- "Dry" is to be expected in movement that has not been serviced in 9 years.
My Questions- Am I adding more wear and tear on the movement because I do not wear the watch often and always have to set the time and the date?
- Could this be why the hour and min hand first started to stop and then became out of sync?
- Is it normal for Breitling Service to take only a day to diagnose issues?
- After reading some threads on manufactures swapping movements during a service is this something Breitling are know for doing?
Any insight into the inner workings at the Canada Breitling service center are welcome and as the watch moves through the process I will update the thread. I should add because the watch is both Blacksteel and does not have a bracelet they did give me a discount on the full service. I did have to call and make this happen and it was not massive:)
Posted on another forum (Sorry for the repeat for those members of both forums)
![Image](https://www.watchuseek.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.watchuseek.com/attachments/2015-breitling-jpg.17318118/)