Breitling Cal B44 Movement

[anton]

I've search these forums to no end and have seen no movement-related differences between our Bentley 6.75 and Blackbird reps when compared to the gens, so here's a little informational spread...

Our reps are a "mega-modified" A7750 movement made to run just like a Cal. 44. Now I've never held either rep in person, so I have no initial experience on how they dunction, but I do have a gen Crosswind Special, which is built on the movement.

Front view:

Side view:

According to Breitling, this movement is based on a 2892-A2 with chronograph and big date modules attached on top. But personally, I think it's just an 2894-2 with the big date module. There is bacially no difference between the two; since the 2894 is essentially a 2892 with chrono module.

Notice the second picture (the side view). This is what I consider to be the glaring flaw that is present on these reps because the A7750 is an integrated chronograph movement. So you can always tell a rep from a gen based on the offset of the pushers to the crown (about 2mm), which are not on a straight line on the gen (again, due to modular movement).

The date starts swapping over around 11:35pm and "flips" at 12-12:01AM. The clockwise turn of the crown in the second position turns the date.

One thing that I did not like about this movement (or maybe it could just be my watch being that it's seven years old) is that when the gears are engaged for the chronograph function, the seconds counter (@ 3) seems to jump about two seconds ahead when starting. It's not affected, though when it resets. Additionally, as the chronograph seconds move, so do the minutes counter as well in a quasi-sweeping motion (albeit slowly) whereas the A7750 will move one minute once the seconds hand gets to about 58-60 secs.

So, folks, those are the main differences I've noticed between the movement and movement it's meant to mimic. Please feel free to contribute to this thread, since I am a novice.

[arminvanbuuren]

i dunno what you mean by straight line.. but i noticed on the blackbird the pusher and the crown are lined up in a straight line.. but check this out.. this is from the bentley (pic above).. it looks similar to yours.. but maybe its just me

[chrgod]

Thanks for posting this! A lovely Crosswind.

[woody]

Good information to know about the how the gear changes on the chrono minutes, kind of fascinating if you ask me. I would love it if our reps do that too, but I guess we'll just be asking too much, won't we? I love the CWS, ever since it came out, that is probably why I love the blackbird so much too. I just may need to sell a few of my watches to fund for this blackbird rep......

PS. Anton, you wouldn't happen to have time that you can post a video of said movement sweep, can you? I just thought about it would be pretty cool to see this in action, since I hardly see those movement at a Breitling dealer, to be honest...

[anton]

i dunno what you mean by straight line.. but i noticed on the blackbird the pusher and the crown are lined up in a straight line.. but check this out.. this is from the bentley (pic above).. it looks similar to yours.. but maybe its just me

My picture was taken at a slight angle, so there's room for distortion.

Armin, here's a reference picture of a gen 6.75

Notice how the pushers are not asymmertical with the crown, as is evident with the rep. Also, the crown is "sunken" towards the bottom of the case.

But hey, the Blackbird and 6.75 are still good reps.

Woody, I'll be posting a video soon. EDIT: Here it is:

It's my first video posting thru photobucket so forgive me for the poor quality.

Video on Photobucket

Edited September 14, 2007 by anton

[arminvanbuuren]

yes yes now i get it .. on your pic the pusher was below the crown so i thought that's what you meant .. now i see how the pusher is meant to be above the crown thanks for the help mate