# How accurate is your Breitling?



## Rony3k

I just purchased a Costco B-2 Breitling and it is running fast at a rate of 6 seconds a day. So every day for the past 5 days it has gained about 6 seconds a day. So about 30 seconds overall. 
So I was wondering....
How accurate is your Breitling? and what Breitling is it? 
Super Swiss Quartz Breitling watches need not respond.
Aloha, Ron


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## O2AFAC67

*Hi, Ron. Remember, COSC specs are +6, -4 per day...*



Rony3k said:


> I just purchased a Costco B-2 Breitling and it is running fast at a rate of 6 seconds a day. So every day for the past 5 days it has gained about 6 seconds a day. So about 30 seconds overall.
> So I was wondering....
> How accurate is your Breitling? and what Breitling is it?
> Super Swiss Quartz Breitling watches need not respond.
> Aloha, Ron


so you are within the parameters. Breitling does regulate the watches a bit on the fast side because they do tend to slow down slightly as they are "broken in", usually a month or three after usage begins. All my Breitling's (Navi's, Cosmo's, Crosswind)with one exception are easily within COSC specs most of the time whether they are COSC certified (2000 and later) or not. The regulation does vary a bit depending on whether they've been on the winder or worn and set down and especially if I have been running the chrono (slower slightly) because I like to watch the chrono second hand tick away. More often than not, they are spot on, not more than a second or two off a day. Hope this helps. Cheers,
Ron


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## Rony3k

*Re: Hi, Ron. Remember, COSC specs are +6, -4 per day...*



O2AFAC67 said:


> so you are within the parameters. Breitling does regulate the watches a bit on the fast side because they do tend to slow down slightly as they are "broken in", usually a month or three after usage begins. All my Breitling's (Navi's, Cosmo's, Crosswind)with one exception are easily within COSC specs most of the time whether they are COSC certified (2000 and later) or not. The regulation does vary a bit depending on whether they've been on the winder or worn and set down and especially if I have been running the chrono (slower slightly) because I like to watch the chrono second hand tick away. More often than not, they are spot on, not more than a second or two off a day. Hope this helps. Cheers,
> Ron


Hi,
So for now I guess I'm Ok.
I was beginning to worry because By Citizen Eco Drive Blue Angels has gained only 3 seconds in 4 months...
Thanks 
Aloha, Ron


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## JohnR

Rony3k said:


> Super Swiss Quartz Breitling watches need not respond.
> Aloha, Ron


And just when I was going to jump in and boast that my B-1 is less than a second off after a month. Just take away all of the fun. :-( Ok, well, I think my Olympus runs around 2-3 sec fast/day. On the other hand, my Ulysse Nardin is running close to 20sec slow/day. Don't feel bad though, because my fake Chrono Avenger was running abour 120 sec slow/day. I could never remember what those COSC standards were though when I was wearing it. I remember its +6, but could never remember if it was -4 or -120. That part always escaped me. ;-)

John


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## Simon

Your +6 out of the box is fine & as Ron says, should adjust down a few seconds in a month or so.

My _SO _always about *+3*; _Seawolf_ *+2;* _Navitimer_ out of the box was *+7;* but after 2 months has come to about *+5* & I'm expecting it to drop another second.

I have found that both the _Wolf_ & _Navitimer_ slow down off the wrist at night, on its side, sitting crown up & I usually pull back 2 seconds per night of time gained in the day, which makes the _Wolf _perfect and the _Navi_ about *+3* in any 24 hour timing.

BTW, most accurate watch I ever owned was a Zenith ElPrimero which was within 1 second a day every day no matter how it was worn & what I did in it - an astounding feat of engineering & regulating.

si


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## EJC

*Re: Hi, Ron. Remember, COSC specs are +6, -4 per day...*



Rony3k said:


> Hi,
> So for now I guess I'm Ok.
> I was beginning to worry because By Citizen Eco Drive Blue Angels has gained only 3 seconds in 4 months...
> Thanks
> Aloha, Ron


Actually, I'd be wondering why the Citizen is gaining 1 secs a month, as opposed to the Breitling gaining 6secs a day. Not thayt either is a problem though.


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## Kurt Koerfgen

Rony3k said:


> I just purchased a Costco B-2 Breitling and it is running fast at a rate of 6 seconds a day. So every day for the past 5 days it has gained about 6 seconds a day. So about 30 seconds overall.
> So I was wondering....
> How accurate is your Breitling? and what Breitling is it?
> Super Swiss Quartz Breitling watches need not respond.
> Aloha, Ron


Hello Ron3k,

Personally, I do not attach too much importance on how many seconds fast/slow per day a watch runs, as long as that deviation does not change from day to day and is less than about 12 seconds/day. After all, it is - at best - a snapshot in time that may look differently a year from now.

Mechanical watches - and these are the only ones I am referring to - react to the way the owner wears them, how much and how abruptly he moves his wrists, what kind of sports he participates in, whether he wears the watch at night, or whether he takes the watch off and in which position he stores it during night. All these factors will have an influence on watch performance and a watch that is extremely accurate on one person's wrist, could easily be 6 seconds/day fast on someone else's wrist. (On a caliber 13 for example, just the habit of flicking your wrist to shake loose a bracelet can account for 6 seconds/day, while on a caliber 12 the way you store the watch overnight may have a similar effect)

The way do deal with a fast, or slow running watch that has begun to exceed acceptable levels is to have the watch put on a Chronoscope, assess performance and then decide whether the watch might need a service, or only needs to be regulated a bit to suits the owner's lifestyle.

Sometimes you come accross posting like: "Wow, my watch gained only xyz seconds in a month, isn't this the best watch (brand) in the world?" 
Well, yes; pretty nice, but what does it really signify? 
And then another posting complains that a watch is no longer within COSC specifications. So what; was the watch guaranteed to perform within COSC specifications for all eternity? No, a COSC certified watch movement has demonstrated at one point in the past that it can meet COSC requirements, nothing more. 
It's almost like the customary warning for stock investors: "Past perfomance is no guarantee of future results."

And not only watch manufacturer and owner have an influence on watch performance. One of my worst performers became one of my best performers when a new watchmakers took over who has an exceptional knack for regulating watches, more than the previous one.

So you see, many factors - and I am fairly sure I missed a few - can affect how a mechanical watch performs, so that a single snapshot from a 3 months old watch does not really signify too much, doesn't it? In a way, that contributes to the charm of owning a mechanical watch, it gives the watch a kind of individuality that quartz watches lack.

My latest Breitling, a Cosmonaute (again), runs about 5 seconds/day fast. It does so since when I bought the watch 6 months ago, no matter how I wear the watch, where I am, and what I do; and the 5 seconds deviation does not appear to change. I could have the watch regulated, but frankly, so far I couldn't be bothered. The watch is extremly predictable in it's behaviour and all it takes in the morning is to hack it, count to 5, and presto; the watch is synchronized. Perfect behaviour in my book.

Just a few thoughts; but trust me, your watch is doing fine.

Aloha!


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## Frank Valentin

Very well written, Kurt! :-! My new (preowned) Breitling Wings is 17 secs fast now. A tad too much IMHO. Ít´s now five years old and was just stored for most of the time. I will see how it developes in the next weeks on my wrist and then decide if it´s time for a service.


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## Proximo

I agree with all that Kurt said......


I can tell you that I've owned my Navitimer for two years and I can go days without wearing it, pull it out of the watch case, wind it up and it will run within COSC everytime. It did run slightly fast when I first got it (+10)

I'm very anal about accuracy........

Come to think of it, only a Panerai that I owned (with a supposedly less accurate Unitas movement) and two IWC's that I had were as consistently accurate as the Navi.


Take care,
Mark


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## Rony3k

So now I run the chronometer all the time and I seem to be 5 seconds fast each day down from 6.......And for sure.... it seems to add less seconds off the wrist than on.


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## bradders

Hey I am with Kurt all the way here - As regular forum readers will now my motley collection of B's are not collectively the best time keepers around - although some of them are well within the 12 seconds over 24 hours which is just fine with me. 

One of the Top Time's gains about 30mins in 10 hours though - I guess I really do neet to get that one serviced.

If I were anal about time keeping I would buy a quartz swatch - but I am not and all my watches get wrist time (okay not the TT at the moment) - and generate a few bar room discusions that just don't happen with most other brands.

Biding on another Top Time at the moment - BTW.

Brad


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## SnapIT

bradders said:


> One of the Top Time's gains about 30mins in 10 hours though - I guess I really do neet to get that one serviced.
> 
> Brad


Hi Brad,

This sounds like the hair spring has developed a kink and this is seriously shortening the period of the balance wheel thus time is running faster. To the watchmaker. But you are already planning that I see. ;-)


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## Dial Symmetric

Back in 2016 I bought a used Breitling Superocean and it was loosing 10 secnds per day. It havent had a service for 15 years. 
After the service it was runing at +1/2 per day.


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## velorider

My LE Blackbid is running +2 sec/day for over a year now


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## ccl127

Seems reasonable to me for non-COSC watch.


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## aleksejeremeev

My 2008. Run forward for 10 seconds a day


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## Johnny0

+1 sec per day


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## isthar

FWIW, an ETA2824-based Navitimer 41mm (the non chrono), new (dec 2019 marked on case)... I'm registering about +5s/d (using a mobile app for timing); at night it stays dial-up.


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## jjspyder

My Breitling Transocean Unitime Chronograph (B05 movement) runs great within 1 second per day at about 3 years old.


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## danimal107

40mm Chronomat runs -9 sec a day. Acceptable I suppose but its the worst time keeper of my collection... Maybe I am just lucky with having very accurate watches in my collection. Mostly Panerai...


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## chris c

My two Colts (an A17035 and an A17350) are -2 and +4 seconds a day. They were each serviced about 6 years ago.


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## King_Neptune

1. My Galactic Unitime with the B35 manufacture movement gains less than 1 second per day.:-!

2. My Avenger II Chronograph with the B13 movement is less impressive and gains about 5 seconds per day.


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## MSugarman

I’m very impressed with my Colt 41 Ref A17313101F1A1 averaging +2.7 spd over 27 days now. That’s with the B17 (ETA 2824-2) movement


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## mikkolopez

This SO pretty spot on at +1 per day









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## zeit_time

Haven't had it that long, but finding +/- 0.07 seconds/day will be tough  I wear it all the time so I'm expecting less than 5s/year.


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## sxmwht

My SOH II wsa about +4.5spd when I got it. Now, 2 months on, it is about +3.9spd I believe.


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## YakPlt

Rony3k said:


> *Re: Hi, Ron. Remember, COSC specs are +6, -4 per day...*
> 
> Hi,
> So for now I guess I'm Ok.
> I was beginning to worry because By Citizen Eco Drive Blue Angels has gained only 3 seconds in 4 months...
> Thanks
> Aloha, Ron


Keep in mind that your Citizen Eco Drive Blue Angels watch has an internal receiver for the governments time reference broadcast station WWVB. Every night it attempts to synchronize itself to that signal resulting in under 1 second of error. If your Blue Angel watch is 3 seconds off, it has not synced properly for awhile now. You oftentimes need to find a good location to leave it in every night. The manual describes the procedure to do that. Other than a GPS based watch, your Citizen make and model will always be more accurate than your Breitling.


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## trustmeiamanengineer

my navitimer world currently running in viscinity of +000 or +001 second throughout the position. NO I am NOT $H1++!N6 around (one of the 6 position, top down, did run +2).

most accurate watch I own so far, this breitling, incl. a metas Omega and a rolex superlative cosc


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