The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi all...

So 8 days ago I bought a B55 from LHR T5. I loved the look of it and could justify the core functionality - style wise and function wise it's surely the heir apparent to the outgoing aerospace - so having poured over the question for about a month bit the bullet and went for it.

Since purchasing, and over the past 8 days, I've flown LHR-EZE, EZE-SCL, SCL-YYZ, YYZ-IND, IND-ORD, and then landed ORD-LHR this morning. So I've logged the flights, utilised the second time consistently, loved the home time and the UTC anchor has been great. I've also messed around with the notifications although these are secondary. I'm more interested in being able to set up the myriad functions on the watch on my phone and pull data back from it.

I loved it. I was going to write an in-depth review and saying fingers crossed it looks like earlier teething problems have been resolved since, during a fairly comprehensive and hard working genuine aerospace and operations test, it was superb.

Then this... when exposed to cool temperatures the pixels in the top display start to die out. When it comes back up to ambient it works ok but as you can see on the attached, when it's cold, pixels die.

8 days old!!

I've already spoken to the retailer and they are ordering me a direct replacement for me to exchange when I'm back through LHR next but I've already told them that right now I want a refund.

It's an enormous amount of money to spend on a tool watch that can't hack being in aerospace for longer than 8 days or in any chilly environment such as... ooooh... an unpressurised aircraft with crappy heating, the winter testing station in northern Canada, we can forget skydiving or, more day to day, walking the dog with a brisk cool breeze.

I know it's temp related since as soon as noticed this evening I ran through any changes in parameters based on my surroundings and where I was operating prior to being back in the UK, came up with a logical answer, and tested it by sticking it in the fridge for 10mins. Fails every time.

I've also told them (the AD) that right now it feels tainted - that even if the replacement works fine I'll be looking at it every day waiting to see if today's the day this one breaks. I don't want to spend that much money to endure the paranoia, or to spend it on something that I have to send away quarterly for its latest warranty repair until such time as it's out of warranty!

Problem is I loved it, it looked fantastic and when it was working it was brilliant at what it was for, so there is a huge 'heart' issue playing into this. But head says a £5800 retail watch that won't get chilly without slowly packing up?! Totally unacceptable.

Thoughts? Stay strong, get my money back, and cut and run - or take the like for like and hope it was a one off.

I know there are various threads on this but not many I think that highlight this particular issue....

My inclination is to take the money but I may have calmed down a bit in a few days and be persuaded to take the replacement.

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

Difficult one. I think it comes down to (as you rightly said) how you think you will feel about the watch in the future. If you're constantly going to be worrying about whether it will go wrong again, then you'd be better off taking the cash. I had exactly the same type of thing with my old IWC Big Pilot - terrible timekeeping even after multiple trips back to IWC meant I'd never touch another Big Pilot again.... and that was a watch I loved the look of.

On the other hand, if you think you can convince yourself it was just a one off and that you were unlucky, then take the like-for-like replacement. Obviously it's down to how you feel about it, but the fact you mentioned it in this thread, then I think you're already leaning towards the refund.....

Good luck whatever you choose.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

^^^^ Great advice above ^^^^

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

Sorry to hear this. For the price paid this should never happen. Unfortunately one more bad review for this watch. Was considering the b55 but I’ll definitely stay away from it..
Hope you find a satisfying solution quickly.

i think i would ask for a report from BUK before you decide what to do.

lets say they open it up say the module is clearly broken or has a loose connection and clearly and visibility identified as faulty, i would be tempted to take the replacement

if you get told, oh this is weird we have not had this happen, must be faulty i would be tempted by the refund

Op ,
What did you end up doing for the b55?
Did you get any feedback for Breitling ?

Hi - so I returned it to the AD for a full refund. Just couldn’t get past how quickly it broke!

To my knowledge, nothing back from Breitling UK.

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