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New 44mm Colt Quartz - initial impressions & possible bezel alignment issue?

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dirkpitt73

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Gents,

I picked up a brand new Colt Quartz from my AD yesterday. Been looking for a high quality HAQ (SuperQuartz in Breitling speak) analog piece and this one fits the bill for sure.

My initial impressions are really positive. It's very comfortable on the wrist and not too thick (coming from a Sea-Dweller!). The bracelet feels great, wish it had a non-tool (AKA toothpick or paperclip) requiring micro adjust, but love the slanted lines of the Professional III.

Here's my only real issue, the bezel seems slightly off. I'm a little anal retentive about my watches, so keep that in mind. But I'm willing to forgive some things, like the second hand not hitting all of the indices (nearly impossible to find).

Here are some pics of the closest I can get it. Seems a little to the left of the 12:00 triangle (but within it). Now that I'm taking macro shots and zooming in, in some pics it's more pronounced than others. What do y'all think?

Image


For comparison, one click to the right seems WAY more off:
Image


Worth seeing if AD can adjust?

Thanks,
John
 
#2 · (Edited)
New 44mm Colt Quartz - initial impressions & possible bezel alignment issue?

Looks okay to me. And I've got limited tolerances for bezel alignment myself.

You can turn the watch flat and sight straight from 6 to 12 and see where pip sits beyond to eliminate parallax effects. Any better/worse? How's the alignment at 3, 6, 9?

Personally, so long as it doesn't bother me every time I look at the watch, I love with it and choose not to dwell on the little imperfections. Easier said than done sometimes lol.
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
Re: New 44mm Colt Quartz - initial impressions & possible bezel alignment issue?

the.hatter said:
Looks okay to me. And I've got limited tolerances for bezel alignment myself.

You can turn the watch flat and sight straight from 6 to 12 and see where pip sits beyond to eliminate parallax effects. Any better/worse? How's the alignment at 3, 6, 9?

Personally, so long as it doesn't bother me every time I look at the watch, I love with it and choose not to dwell on the little imperfections. Easier said than done sometimes lol.
Click to expand...
You bring up a good point the.hatter, I did look at this. The 3/15 seems aligned and 9/45 and 6/30 look more aligned than the 12. The 12 rider tab with the pip is actually dead center to with the "12", it's the little "100" and triangle that are to the right.

Can the rider tabs be adjusted independently on this bezel? If I could get someone to move the 12/pip slightly to right it would be ideal.
 
#4 ·
I wouldn't bother. It gives the watch som personality. Concratiolations by the way!
 
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#5 ·
Hi John,
Congrats on the Colt!
It did take me quite a lot of effort to see the problem you described... even after drawing a line across the dial:
However, I can understand that once you have seen it, you can become obsessed with this (very little) imperfection.

To me, the bezel is OK, but the rehaut (with the 0-100 scale) is slightly to the right.
If I was in your shoes, I would try to swap the watch for another Colt, so that you can enjoy your new watch as intended -- to the fullest.
Sending it in to Breitling will require several weeks and may (or may not) have an uncertain outcome -- after all, your watch did pass QC in the first place.

Cheers,
Don
 
Discussion starter · #7 ·
Hi Don - thanks so much for your help here, great work! You may be on to something with the rehaut being tilted slightly to the right. I'm assuming it is a separate piece from the dial itself? Hard to tell. Further supporting this theory (assuming it is separate) is the fact that the rider tabs seem to align with the 12 and 6 quite well (e.g. perfectly in the middle). To me, the most annoying part is the bottom arrow on the pip rider tab is slightly to the left of the dial arrow index above the 12 and a little to the left of the 100 decimal hour marker. In retrospect, I wish I would have examined it more closely before taking delivery - I tried a few on at different AD's and then negotiated best discount over the phone, so when I came in to pickup it was ready to go. Lesson learned, bring a loupe and check everything before you (or the AD) takes the plastic off.

I did contact the AD yesterday and at the time thought it was the bezel (it still might be I guess) - they agreed to have their in-house watchmaker take it off and try to adjust more to my liking. I may try this. I didn't explicitly ask about a swap yet (I need to look at the other ones and see if they exhibit similar issues) but I get the impression I need to try this first.

I really do love the watch, I set it perfectly with a loupe (minute hand alignment) last night and it's spot on. I also noticed when I was setting it a couple of times (to get it perfect) that the second hand index alignment (hitting the marks) got better. I've been a WIS long enough to know this is impossible to have all of the time without a drive-by-wire movement, so that is not a big deal to me. I think it probably passed QC because it is *very* close. I've read old posts with people having similar issues and Breitling has said it's within spec. We'll see, I'm trying to enjoy it and not let it bother me, but I will update this post after I take it in. I'll be curious to see if some click spring adjustment with the bezel (re-seating it) makes a difference.
 
Discussion starter · #11 ·
Thanks CaptainOwl, good to know I'm not the only one! I thought about that too, but since I actually bought it from a local AD (rare for me), I took it in. They had 3 other Colt's (2 autos and 1 quartz) and 1 of 3 had the same issue (in addition to mine!). Anyway, they offered to take the bezel off and try to adjust it, we'll see. I'll post pics.
 
Discussion starter · #12 ·
My thoughts exactly, I'm really hoping my AD can fix it locally - in my experience, pretty much every brand's service department (with the notable exception of Citizen USA) is a black hole.

Avantgardetime17 said:
Leave it alone. If you send it back to BUSA you will not see the watch back for 6-8 weeks.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
 
#13 ·
Honestly, I would ask your AD to swap the entire watch out for a new one... I wouldn't be able to live with that once I had seen it. If you're paying this much for a watch you have every right to expect it to be perfect (or as close to as possible).

Don't let them off lightly on this one.

Best of luck! :)
 
Discussion starter · #14 ·
TMore9 said:
Honestly, I would ask your AD to swap the entire watch out for a new one... I wouldn't be able to live with that once I had seen it. If you're paying this much for a watch you have every right to expect it to be perfect (or as close to as possible).

Don't let them off lightly on this one.

Best of luck! :)
Click to expand...
The AD had it for a few days, called to say it was fixed. Imagine my disappointment when they brought it out from the back and it pretty much looks the same. They say they removed the bezel and reseated it but it won't align perfectly. It does appear slightly different, the closest right position is a bit more to the left than before. The left position is now more to the left. Neither aligns perfectly (you can get it to between clicks but it doesn't stay).

So, I asked what next. They said they can send it to Breitling overnight and request a week turnaround (seems unlikely). I said I want a replacement. They said no, once stickers are off and warranty activated it's mine. They said Breitling might replace it if they can't fix it. Worth a shot but it means being without it for at least a couple of weeks.

Sounds like my only option is to send it in. AD suggested I wear it for awhile and if it still bothers me after some time I have 2 years to send it in. Very frustrating as the watch is less than 2 weeks old.

Ironically, I was going to buy from Joma but decided to try the "safe" route through an AD, which I rarely do. Having owned many watches, 5 Rolexes over the years, IWC, Breitling, Sinn, Omega, I've never seen an issue like this. Lesson learned, check the watch out very thoroughly before any plastic comes off or payment issued. Don't expect Breitling QC to be perfect (other, not all, Colts in the display case exhibited same issue).

Wondering if I should call Breitling direct and bypass the AD? Anyone know if they would treat me any better?

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
 
#16 ·
The bezel can be aligned properly! If you take of the bezel there is a ratcheting washer with little noses under it. This one can be installed in 3 different positions. For this purpose Breitling drilled 3 holes into the case. This is the fine adjustment for the bezel. You have to try these 3 positions and find out the best one for you.
You can do this by yourself. But you will need a fitting screwdiver for the screws in the side of the bezel. After unscrewing them some turns the bezel and an additional spring wire will pop off easily.


Gesendet von iPhone mit Tapatalk
 
Discussion starter · #17 ·
Smpfan2531 said:
The bezel can be aligned properly! If you take of the bezel there is a ratcheting washer with little noses under it. This one can be installed in 3 different positions. For this purpose Breitling drilled 3 holes into the case. This is the fine adjustment for the bezel. You have to try these 3 positions and find out the best one for you.
You can do this by yourself. But you will need a fitting screwdiver for the screws in the side of the bezel. After unscrewing them some turns the bezel and an additional spring wire will pop off easily.

Gesendet von iPhone mit Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Thanks, that makes sense, may try it or at the very least, ask Breitling to give it a shot. Appreciate the info!

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
 
Discussion starter · #18 ·
I wanted to share a very late update on this situation. I ended up sending the watch back to Breitling. I must say, their customer service is excellent. I was impressed that I could call and actually speak with someone. They had me send some pics and said they could fix. They sent me a shipping container (very slick) and I sent it off.

They had it for a couple of weeks and said they fixed and sent back. I got the box, very nice packaging and they clearly overhauled this almost new watch. Cleaned, oiled, etc. BUT, the bezel was no better!!!

At this point I'm like, am I crazy here? I've shown it to others and they agree it's off to. So after trying the AD and Breitling I followed the advice of some on this post and just did it myself. I have some tools and have worked on other watches to a small degree (no more than other WIS).

The bezel was easy to remove, you don't have to take the screws all the way out. It came off revealing the click wheel. I took that out to try it without one, which gives you infinite bezel flexibility but it's too loose. So I reseated the click wheel in one off the side holes, there are three total. Popped it back on and it's better. Way moreso than what the AD and Breitling did. I can live with it like this.

Makes me wonder why neither "professional" did this, but oh well. Here are some pics of the process and what it looks like now.
Image


Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
 
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dirkpitt73
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