Chronograph hand alignment

[anon65535]

Hi all, I got my first Breitling for Christmas this year and just love it. After looking at it for a bit (and being type A) it appeared that the chronograph second hand is just sooo slightly advanced. I probably wouldn't have noticed it without the inverted triangle at 12 but it appears to be about 1/15 of a second towards the 1 second mark.

I though it was my eyes at first but carefully studying it over several days it's definately just a bit off. Looking at photo's in this years chronolog it looks like many other models are slightly advanced, retarted or nearly spot on. I was wondering if this is just a normal part of the handcrafting process or if other folks have had a similar experience. Thanks all. /cbh

[SnapIT]

You are telling me that you can see 0.4 of a degree or 1/15 of 6 degrees at ~15mm radius, and it bothers you? Time to take off the micro surgery glasses! :-) It is related to the way the hand sits on the gear and that gear engages the chronograph gear train. It could be adjusted but to what end? The next time you engage the chronograph it could change position. Then what?

[publandlord]

Hi all, I got my first Breitling for Christmas this year and just love it. After looking at it for a bit (and being type A) it appeared that the chronograph second hand is just sooo slightly advanced. I probably wouldn't have noticed it without the inverted triangle at 12 but it appears to be about 1/15 of a second towards the 1 second mark.

If you're using a loupe, which you must be to detect this sort of offset, then you're cheating :).

As SnapIT suggests, this is more to do with the fact that each chrono hand position is discrete, determined by the way the cogs mesh and the slack inherent in the mechanism, even when well adjusted. There is a piece in the chrono mechanism which rotates to snap the second hand back to zero - but the hand has inertia when the reset button is depressed in order to reset it to the '12' position. Accuracy to within less than a needle's-width is probably outside the capabilities of this sort of reset mechanism.

If it's really off, say a half-second, and always resets with the same offset, then it is possible to adjust it.

[anon65535]

Thanks guys, well - it's off much less than a needles width. What makes it more apparent is that the bottom of the hand (where it meets the 6 oclock subdial) seems to be more visually apparent (closer to being a needle width). The best I can describe it is that the 'left' portion of the lower part of the second hand overlaps the the number 1 in the 12 oclock number in the subdial as opposed to being a perfectly straight line going straight down. I would assume that the when the chronograph is reset that the moving hand from the top to the bottom subdial should appear to be one contiguous line vertically. Maybe I'm just being too picky. If any of you guys have a perfectly dead on picture of your watch face I could tell you if I'm seeing the same thing. Thanks again all. :)

[Evenstephen2000]

Let it alone! Watch the sunshine outside! Enjoy the watch...it doesn't matter!!!!!!