The Breitling Watch Source Forums

How long does it take for a new automatic watch to get back to fully wound?

I manually wound my new Navitimer B1 40 times at about 8 PM and the watch was off by an hour the next day at noon. The second hand was still running. I did the same thing last night and wore the watch watch for a couple of hours this morning and it stopped around 2. Is this normal?

40-50 winds will usually run it for the entire reserve if your not wearing it, I know if I wind my Navi GMT it will run the full 70 hours I believe it is, if I am not wearing it. I know the new watches have a break in period. See what some of the experts say, I’m definitely not one

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5 Super Avengers
1 Super Avenger 2
1 Super Avenger limited edition
1 Super avenger night mission
1 Limited edition chronomat Boston Celtics
Navitimer GMT
Transocean Chronograph Unitime
2 Omega planet ocean chronographs
1 Tag heuer Monaco

It usually takes at least 24 hours for a wound watch to run and if it is constantly worn, there will be a continuous sequence of when it will stop completely.

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Wind the watch fully by the crown, leave it on the table and count the time until it stops.
That will show you how much power reserve there is. If it stops sooner than it's power reserve should be (in the specs), something is wrong with winding mechanism. If power reserve is about right, but your watch stops after few days of wearing it, it's that your are not active enough to wind it via rotor (or something is wrong with winding it by rotor). Than you should wind it manually every few days. Hope this helps.

All good advice from Newb!

You can't overwind an automatic watch so you can give it 50 or 60 turns to ensure it's fully wound. Then do as Bnewbie says - i.e. set it down and don't touch it until it stops. If the time taken to fully wind down is within specs then the manual winding and mainspring/escapement mechanisms are working fine, so you can fully wind it again and then wear it as you normally do. Again, as Bnewbie says, if it stops after a similar (or only slightly longer) period of time, then you either aren't wearing it for long enough for it to adequately wind itself, or you aren't active enough, or there's something wrong with the automatic winding mechanism.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

I tried that and the watch stopped after about 48hrs. Now it wasn’t a full 360degree wind. Maybe I’m not winding it properly? Does the crown need to make a full 360degree turn with each wind?

One "wind" isn't necessarily a full 360 degrees. As I say above, you can't overwind an automatic as they have a slipping clutch to prevent exactly that. So give it 60, 70 or 80 winds if you like, and then try the "setting it down without touching it" thing to determine the power reserve. If it's still only 48 hours (and if it's definitely a B01 model that you've got and not an earlier non-B01 model), then it's not holding enough power reserve (as it should be around 70 hours for the B01 movement) and you will need to get it looked at.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

It’s the AB0121. It should be the first year production (2018?). It doesn’t say chronometer under breitling logo.
Warranty is dated June 2019.

https://www.breitling.com/us-en/watches ... 21211B1A1/

https://www.fratellowatches.com/new-bre ... -b01-43mm/

Yes, that has the B01 movement which should have the 70 hour power Reserve. As driver said, you can't over wind a watch so give it like a hundred winds just to make sure. The old 40 turns was generally given with the not in house movements that have shorter power reserves and can sometimes require less turns. I have a few watches that have power Reserve indicators and generally the longer the power reserve, the more turns it takes to fully wind so give this one many turns and then set it down and see.

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I did 60 turns this morning. Let’s see how long it runs.

It's been 67 hours and the watch is still going strong so I don't think there are any issues with the power reserve. 40 turns was apparently not enough to fully wound the watch.

That being said, the rotor appears to be very restricted and doesn't turn very much. The very first time I wore the watch I manually wound it 40 times and the watch stoped after a couple of days while I was wearing it. I tried to shake it but that didn't help. If I rotate the watch in my hand the rotor turns a full circle with the rotation and that gets the watch going. Otherwise no matter how much I moved my hand around I could not get the watch to start. I may have to invest in a winder for this watch.

Here is an example of B1 rotor (See 12:52). The rotor doesn't move even when he tilts the watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQdJ5ppDBKw