The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hello, everyone

I have a couple of questions about getting a watch regulated since I've never had it done on any of the watches I've owned. That is to say, it probably has been done on them as part of a servicing for all I know...

My B01, which I am very pleased with by the way, seems to have stabilised at about -2 sec per day. Now this is very accurate and within chronometer specs, but I prefer my watches erring by gaining time rather than losing time.

Anyway, how precisely can it be regulated? Is it reasonable for me to request that its corrected to say +0,5 a day?

And is it possible to adjust when the instant date change happens? Right now the date switches at about 2 minutes to midnight (which I admit is kind of cool if you're an iron maiden fan )

I don't know how long is considered normal for the mechanics of a new movement to settle in, but its been in daily use for about a couple of months now. Should I wait a while longer?


Thanks in advance!

_________________
"Either this man is dead or my watch has stopped!"
- Groucho Marx

When your B01 is not on your wrist, where is it?

Peter

I play the song "Regulate" by Nate Dogg REALLY LOUD and it seems to take care of any concerns I am having

I take if off when I go to bed. If I'm using a bracelet it lies face up, and when its on a strap it lies sideways crown down. It seems to lose a tad more when its in the crown down position, but I think -2 a day is a fairly correct average. It's spent about the same amount of time on the strap and the bracelet since I got it.

_________________
"Either this man is dead or my watch has stopped!"
- Groucho Marx

There is an excellent post by ianmedium on the print out he received when he took his Breitling in for regulating. Here is the link to the thread.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5559&start=0&hilit=regulate+print+out

Unfortunately, the image of the print out seems to have been removed, but it gave me very good insight into "self regulating" my Breitling by leaving it overnight in the position that compensates for the gain or loss experienced while I'm wearing it. In essence, ianmedium was able to get a very good idea how his time piece would react if left in six different positions.

My Steelfish gains time ever so slightly while I'm wearing it. To compensate, I leave it crown up overnight which makes it run a tad slower bringing it back to the correct time the next morning.

Strangely you mention that your B01 loses time with the crown down - my Steelfish gains around 3 seconds overnight in the crown down position. But then again my Steelfish doesn't have a B01 movement

Peter

Unless you have a timing machine, you will need to run some tests against an accurate source of time. There are several internet sources.

The six positions are du, dd, pu, pr, pd, pl where d = dial and p = pendant or crown; and the second letter refers to position, up down, right and left. Since you wear it daily, check the time when you take it off and place it in one of the positions overnight. Check the time again in the morning. You should see a slight difference between positions since no movement will draw a straight line in all six. Place it in the position where it gained the most (or lost the least) time to attempt close the time difference.

Regulating a watch on a timing machine is not difficult, but it can be time consuming. Almost all movements will have slight cyclical changes at the revolution rates of the train wheels. The amplitude of the change can only be determined by leaving the watch on the timer for at least an hour, preferably two. The reason this is important is you don't want to try to adjust the rate when it is at one peak or the other.

If you brought the watch to me and asked me to adust it to slightly gain time vice its current rate, I would probably keep it on the machine for quite a while before attempting any adjustments. It's not a ten minute fix, although people seem to think so. If a watchmaker tells to to come back in 30 minutes to pick it up, take it somewhere else!

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1809 Cosmonaute
1903 Navi
Navi Olympus
Super Avenger

And therein lies the problem with this 'super accuracy'.

It's easy to regulate a watch that's out by 30 seconds or so in 10 minutes, but to get less than one second accuracy you need to deal with all of the different positions, effectively trying to adjust the 'average' error - watches will always have errors in position you just want to try to compensate them to net zero.

Of course if Marty spends his time doing this for you you will then ruin all his hard work by wearing the watch

In your case the simple solution may be to just lay it in different positions at night and see how that affects the accuracy.

Thanks for your feedback, everyone!

Well, I know what I'll be doing in my spare time for the next days

Is using the chrono to test the time offset a bad idea? It would be a convenient way to measure the offset, not only overnight in the different positions but also overnight vs. daily usage and so on. Also, I think it would be easier to tell the difference more accurately than by using the small seconds hand...

_________________
"Either this man is dead or my watch has stopped!"
- Groucho Marx

Running the chrono for an extended period won't hurt.

The chrono will cause the mainspring to wind down faster, which in turn can lead to the watch running faster, but the mainspring won't get so low overnight for that to have a practical impact.

Great Thread!

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IWC - Big Pilot 5002 - 01
IWC - Pilot Chrono 3717 - 04
Panerai - 183
Omega - Speedmaster 145.012 / 67
Rolex - Explore II (Black Dial) - 216570
Rolex - Explore I 114270
Blancpain FF 5015

Here's an update on my monitoring of accuracy and different resting positions.

I've found that the movement seems to be very consistent regardless of resting crown position and whether or not it's being used and moved around. My measurements are of course not ultra-precise, but I have found the following:

Smallest offset was just over -2 secs
Largest offset was just under -4 secs

Interestingly, the same crown resting position can give noticable variations in offset. Overall, the resting position that seems to be the fastest is crown up, and the slowest is crown down. Again, my measurements are not precise or consistent enough to say this conclusively.

The overall conclusion so far is that the rate is consistent enough for crown resting position to not really make a big difference.

Has anybody else done any accuracy-testing like this on a B01? It would be interesting to hear the results!

And it would also be interesting to hear any comments from members here that know about movements.

Cheers!

_________________
"Either this man is dead or my watch has stopped!"
- Groucho Marx