Movement in Breitling bezel

[Lucky21]

Good afternoon all,

Apologies if this is a total noob question.

I bought my first “decent” watch in January, a Breitling Colt Automatic. And I have been wearing it every day since.

I’ve just started to notice that there is some movement in the bezel, it’s not loose and wobbling of its own accord, but it shifts left and right/9-3, with very little pressure on it.

The watch is less than a year old, and I was really hoping it was still going to feel like a bank vault. I chose this over a Black Bay as I had hoped this would be more of a tool watch than the BB.

Do you think it’s worth taking it back to Goldsmiths under warranty? Or is this a common thing?

Cheers
Kit

[tixntox]

Definitely worth taking back. It will only get worse.

[Lucky21]

Definitely worth taking back. It will only get worse.

Do you think it’s worth taking to Goldsmiths, or just straight to the Breitling boutique when I’m next in London?

Do the Breitling boutique do any maintenance etc in house at all?

Cheers

[Stringer]

It’s maybe quite normal, but I’ve never had a Breitling to compare with. If it has suddenly changed then it’s of course less likely to be normal.

I have watches with some minimal play in the bezel when you push down on the bezel from above, so that it sort of rocks minutely up & down/back & forth across the 9 o’clock – 3 o’clock axis you are talking about. There needs to be some amount of lateral play or else the bezel would be too tight to rotate.

Depending upon the bezel construction – and again, I’m not familiar with Breitling – they can sometimes ride on a spring-loaded ratcheting ‘click’, which is what makes the clicking noise in rotation and what is maybe also allowing for some compression & therefore the movement. My Rolex Submariner, for instance, has a bezel which rests on four spring-loaded points.

Hard to say if it’s normal or not, but either way it shouldn’t be moving a huge movement. If it’s not clearly broken, and if you’re conveniently near another Breitling AD, you could perhaps do a field test by asking to try on a couple of the same models there, and see if they do the same (don’t wear your own Breitling though when doing this!). If they're similar, maybe that's just a quirk of the model, and you might have saved yourself a lot of hassle going down the warranty route.

[Lucky21]

It’s maybe quite normal, but I’ve never had a Breitling to compare with. If it has suddenly changed then it’s of course less likely to be normal.

I have watches with some minimal play in the bezel when you push down on the bezel from above, so that it sort of rocks minutely up & down/back & forth across the 9 o’clock – 3 o’clock axis you are talking about. There needs to be some amount of lateral play or else the bezel would be too tight to rotate.

Depending upon the bezel construction – and again, I’m not familiar with Breitling – they can sometimes ride on a spring-loaded ratcheting ‘click’, which is what makes the clicking noise in rotation and what is maybe also allowing for some compression & therefore the movement. My Rolex Submariner, for instance, has a bezel which rests on four spring-loaded points.

Hard to say if it’s normal or not, but either way it shouldn’t be moving a huge movement. If it’s not clearly broken, and if you’re conveniently near another Breitling AD, you could perhaps do a field test by asking to try on a couple of the same models there, and see if they do the same (don’t wear your own Breitling though when doing this!). If they're similar, maybe that's just a quirk of the model, and you might have saved yourself a lot of hassle going down the warranty route.

Near sure that when i tried the B.B. there was no movement whatsoever. Maybe I picked the wrong watch...

[PreacherCain]

It may be a relatively easy fix - I had a wobbly bezel on my Planet Ocean and they were able to tighten that up easily in a boutique (I was in NYC where the boutique has a workshop) - turned out there was some sand stuck under the bezel. It took them about 5 minutes to pop it off, clean the grit out and put it back together.

[Lucky21]

I might take it into the Breitling boutique then... hopefully they may provide a quick and easy fix.