Breitling Aerospace

I've had my Breitling Aerospace for nearly 20 years now (well sort of, see later). It's been pretty reliable over that time (crown had a problem but was fixed). Every so often (4 years or so) it had a battery change and sometime a service, which was quite costly. £70 for a battery change would sometimes get a bit of a service with some other broken bits, a polish or a clean. the last few times were more expensive, and the servicing stopped. One battery change the hands came back not quite aligned properly.

The flat spring in the bracelet died a long time ago, and genuine replacement parts are very expensive. So I made a spring. Seems to work quite well. I've had to make another one since.

The bracelet clasp failed a couple of years ago. Proper parts were about £400, which I thought was ridiculous. I sourced some generic parts that fitted perfectly, and were actually titanium. The original was steel. A bit of filing and the fit was perfect.

So now, the watch was original, but the bracelet clasp was different parts.

The last battery change, though, became a service (as it hadn't been serviced for a while, so obviously needed it). So I had a service done and the watch came back, after I declined other replacements and work. All seemed well, then I noticed that the movement was displaying things it never did before. I suspected that the movement had been changed, and indeed, an email confirmed this. The back of the case had also been replaced as that is necessary if the movement is changed. This resulted in an anorexic serial number being engraved on the case back, rather than the sturdy punched one I originally had.

Anyway, all was well until this happened:

Yes, the minute hand fell off.  I have already decided to do my own battery changes so I had purchased tools to open the case and remove the hands. I also have the tools and parts necessary to service the movement if I need to. So I popped the case back off and put the minute hand back on.

It wasn't very traumatic, as I now feel that the watch isn't my original one, as the bracelet clasp, case back and movement aren't the original. I'm left with bracelet, case and crystal as original. It's not my watch any more.

Watch Bracelet Spring Success

It looks like the latest iteration of a replacement spring for my Breitling Aerospace has been successful. After the spring died (after only 16 years...) I first tried unravelling a spring I had lying around and used it to make a replacement. It worked OK, but as the original spring had been circular it was difficult to make it a nice shape. The bracelet has a flat cavity for the spring nd it just didn't lie flat and caught on the bracelet as the spring action was exercised.

Attempt 2 (well 2,3 and 4) was a 3d printed part in PLA. It worked well and was perfectly sized. Unfortunately it opnly worked well for 2 days, then it lost all springiness and was useless.

I then bought some stainless steel wire (wire supposed to be used for safety wiring engine parts), but it was too brittle to form into a spring. It only allowed one bend, any attempt to rebend and the wire snapped.

Next attempt was piano wire. I ordered some 0.51mm piano wire and formed it into a flat spring with just a few spring elements. The original spring had a clever design that allowed quite a few elements to fold into a small space. I couldn't form it in such a complex way, so I am trying less elements. This allows the spring to fold into a small space and hence gives more extension when putting the watch on.