I returned one for this issue plus the seconds hand not aligning with the 12 position.
I bought the Tudor Blackbay Chronograph watch (M79360N-0001) from Bloombar Watches in July 2022 and right from the start, the manual winding was stiff to wind (it could be turning the rotor). The watch does keeps perfect time and the automatic movement seems Ok and keeps the watch charged up.
I did some research and it appears that the Tudor Chronograph uses a Breitling movement notorious for stiff winding. I probably should have returned it and I did try and sell it back to Bloombar watches, but they offered a ridiculous price of £2500 for a watch I bought from them a few months ago for £4500! This has spurned me into getting*it looked at and that way, I could sell it on eBay.
I looked on the Bloombar site and they state you have issues with a watch that they have sold you, you have to sent it back to the watch manufacturer (or dealer) to get it looked at under the manufactures warranty. I actually thought this was against consumer law and that Bloombar should get it looked at on my behalf.*
I will probably end up taking it to Goldsmiths (official Tudor AD) in Southampton next week.
I just wondered if anyone had any experience of this watch?
I returned one for this issue plus the seconds hand not aligning with the 12 position.
I'd send it to Tudor. If the watch has a manufacturer warranty, isn't it preferable to get Tudor to sort it rather than somebody poking inside it on behalf of a grey dealer? If it were a recent purchase then I'd want a refund, but after 4-5 months I think that option has passed.
Yup, Breitling BO1 movement in the BB chrono', I have one myself, & yes, the manual winding is 'stiff' but IMHO that's the nature of the movement. Had mine for about 3 years now and no problem. Apart from this issue, if the watch is performing well why worry? If you only wear occasionally & you were manually winding, yeah maybe, but still wouldn't bother me. It's one of my favourite chronographs BTW.
Yes it still has years of warranty left as the watch was new in 2021, but it's my fault not to have just sent it back. but I did hear that Bretling B01/B04 movements fitted to the Tudor, have very stiff manual winding
I have asked Bloombar what to do, as they give a one year warranty on all used watches and they should collect the watch from me an deal with the manufacturer on my behalf.
I will let you know what they say :)
Mine has stiff winding also. I’ve gotten used to it now.
On side note not sure why you paid over RRP. They are not hard to come by any longer.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If your not happy with the stiff manual winding then you need to look for another watch. Whatever happens via warranty work you will still have a movement that is 'stiff' to wind being the characteristic of the movement, no?
Last edited by Nealywheelie; 30th October 2022 at 20:47.
Sounds like a characteristic not a problem. I have no idea why you’d return a watch for repair that appears to be functioning perfectly?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Personallly, I’m fine with it, however should I sell it, then the prospective buyer might well say the winding is stiff - hence the thread question, is this normal?
I can’t help think that when manual winding the watch, I could feel the Rotor being rotated, which of course it shouldn’t???
- - - Updated - - -
At the time there was no stock anywhere ?
This is interesting as I have a Black Bay Chronograph Panda and I did notice how stiff it was to wind. The confusing part is I also own the older Black Bay Chronograph 79350 and that doesn’t have the same issue, yet it uses the same MT5813 movement? Weird.
Sent from my iPad using TZ-UK mobile app
The issue I have is that if I decide to sell on the watch in the future, I don’t want a prospective buyer saying that there is a problem with the manual winding. If Tudor have a look at it and say it is OK then fine, if not they can sort it out. BTW Bloombar are arranging collection to pass the watch onto the Tudor service centre. On a final note, my other watches (eg Rolex, Breitling, Hublot, Ball) have very smooth and resistant free manual winding. I could feel the rotor rotating when I manually wound the Tudor, suggesting to me a problem with the reversing gears???
Yes, that's an issue with the reverser wheels if the rotor spins on manual winding and makes a lot of resistance on the winding.
It's usually a lubrication issue - at least that's what my watchmaker told me when he was servicing my ETA 2484 for a vintage Tudor.
If you continue to manually wind it can damage the teeth on the wheels so definitely get it looked at.
It will keep perfect time otherwise as you've said.
I’ve had the same stiffness on winding (not that I do it very often if I’m continually wearing it) but its honestly never bothered me enough to take it any further as I have a number of watches that are much worse whilst others are so light that I’ve wondered whether they’re even winding. I guess each movement has its own characteristics.
Without knowing more about the design if the movement I wouldn’t assume that it’s a reverser fault. ETA 2824 based movements suffer from this fault and the teeth in the ratchet wheel will strip if the watch is hand- wound with this fault but if the auto-winding design on the Tudor chronograph movement is different this won’t apply.
OP needs to establish whether the stiffness is a characteristic of the design or a fault. A visit to a Tudor AD is probably the best way forward. If a watch feels wrong its a mistake to ignore the problem, unlike grazed knees they don’t fix themselves.
Taking the movement out if the case then re- inserting the stem will allow the movement to be checked, if the winding action feels different that points towards a problem with the crown or possibly alignment of the stem. Its possible that the stem has become bent, that’ll be easy to detect. I’m sure they’ll sort it out but I would expect a detailed explanation of the nature of the problem if it was my watch.