Skyland V2 Advisory.. Movement Problems.

[daytona4me]

I feel the need to issue an advisory to anyone considering a Breitling Skyland V2 purchase.
I have sold a good number of these and I would say that 30% to 35% of these have had to be returned because the movement is not working or the chrono's dont work at all. The biggest issue has been that the movement will stop intermittently.

I own a V2 and it has worked flawlessly but I have a customer who would be on his 3rd V2 but I decided to refund all of his money because I feel it's a ticking time bomb and not worth the gamble.

YOU ARE WARNED, IF YOU ORDER A V2 SKYLAND, YOU HAVE A GREATER CHANCE AT HAVING A BAD MOVEMENT ISSUE THAN WITH ANY OTHER REPLICA RIGHT NOW imo..

(The Blackbird is a close 2nd for me and the new Super Avenger is in 3rd place)

This is really odd as the V2 Skyland and the SA are made by the maker of the Best Hublot BB ..

 

[ThreadLocker]

Thanks, Greg.

 

[horologie_unitas]

wonder what the problem is....since the 7750 movements seem to have improved....sounds like a bad batch ?

to much rice wine ??

 

[gazumi]

Thanks for the heads up D4M.

I thought the 7750s were plug and play for a lot of the reps so I wonder why the problem is confined to just the V2s. Maybe it really is a bad batch. I had 2 21J PAMs go back to a dealer who advised me to get a different model as a replacement because he had a bad batch of movements. They were all installed into the model I originally liked.

 

[chazglenn3]

This is interesting. I have a V1 Skyland from Angus and it has performed flawlessly. Chronos work and reset fine and it keeps great time. Looks like my half lume dot is a better evil than a faulty movement.

 

[Star]

I've bought 3 V2s and only one had a decent mov. Ironically the chrono didn't reset to 12,the date did not align and the bezel was wobbly...but it ran like a champ. The other 2 with perfect bezel,date and chrono reset would stop on me and had little or no power reserve.
D4Me is right on with his views IMO


Timm

 

[Hyster]

Cheers for the heads-up D4me.

I have an updated V1 on the way, hope its not affected by this. :?

 

[speedster]

I have to manually wind my V1 skyland :roll: , initially it was ok but then it stopped a few times, so now I just wind it every two days. Bit of an arse but hey, its a good looker so I can put up with it. As long as it keeps going under manual wind I will be happy.

 

[Yannou]

Cross the fingers...got a Skyland about 2 months ago and no issue for the moment...hum...Was I lucky..??? :roll:

 

[babola]

I've bought 3 V2s and only one had a decent mov. Ironically the chrono didn't reset to 12,the date did not align and the bezel was wobbly...but it ran like a champ. The other 2 with perfect bezel,date and chrono reset would stop on me and had little or no power reserve.
D4Me is right on with his views IMO
Timm

My Skyland V2 story was even worse...bought 2 and both "broken". First came with Chrono DOA, start button wouldn't engage at all, would just 'sink' in softly. Kept the perfect time though. Also two bezel screws were spinning freely inside the bezel.

Second one came with mov't that was gaining 10min a day and would stop every 12-15 hrs for some unknown reason = well, at least until I opened it to adjust the balance wheel regulator (which was sitting in max "+" position) only to find a pubic hair curled under the balance wheel - LOL...this one I wasn't going to mention before fearing that noone would believe me, but there you have it...an extra nicley curved pubic hair that came with the watch for free )...and before someone asks how do you know it's pubic and not head hair...I'd ask you - how many Asians in Guangzhou do you know with curly head hair ...D4M knows about this episode all to well, so can confirm my story.
Anyway, removed the hair and adjusted the mov't to +/-10sec a day, but alas, still no joy, the mov't would stop now every 24-30hrs, regardless of the fact the watch was being worn on the wrist at that time or resting in the watch box. A good (read decent strong) blow on the side of the case would bring it to life for another 20-30hrs.

Both watches have been returned to the original dealer.

This was just to add my side of this story and 2cents
babola

 

[doctorron]

LMAO Babola. Can you post a picture of the snoot hair? Sorry for your troubles but that is one funny-assed story. Killing me.

 

[babola]

LMAO Babola. Can you post a picture of the snoot hair? Sorry for your troubles but that is one funny-assed story. Killing me.

Sorry mate, was so amazed by the experience that taking photos didn't even cross my mind at tthat point. That's one of the reason I refrained from posting this until now (D4M also thought it would make for an awesome story) , I thought without photo evidence not many people would have believed me, anyway.

Needless to say, my jeweller's tweezers have been purged, since

 

[doctorron]

LMAO Babola. Can you post a picture of the snoot hair? Sorry for your troubles but that is one funny-assed story. Killing me.

Sorry mate, was so amazed by the experience that taking photos didn't even cross my mind at tthat point. That's one of the reason I refrained from posting this until now (D4M also thought it would make for an awesome story) , I thought without photo evidence not many people would have believed me, anyway.

Needless to say, my jeweller's tweezers have been purged, since

Thank God. I didn't really want to see said proof.

 

[doctorron]

Back to the post... I was saving my money for the V2 PVD. I guess that's out now. So the V1 didn't have problems? That half dot didn't bother me that bad.

 

[Jurgenk]

No pubes, but what I did to fix my stopping Skyland V2

Wow I didn't know this was such a common finding.

The symptoms many are describing are actually identical to the problem I experienced with my V2 when it was originally shipped (drop-shipped) 2-3 months ago.

The rotor on these watches is very close to the inside of the caseback, so much so that if the caseback is tightened to its most clockwise, you can actually stop the rotor, and can only power the watch via handwinding. As it was originally shipped it was not running, always a red flag. The caseback wasn't tightened all the way, and so some winding would happen with very hard shaking, but not enough to get a good power reserve. Hand winding would keep it going for a day or so.

I had a look inside, and luckily did not find any PUBES in the movement. Or any other debris for that matter, just a clean looking cheap old A7750b.

But the rotor would spin freely with the case off, and gave plenty of power reserve. I found that with partly screwing back on the caseback I'd retain some rotor movement but it was dicey as far as water proofing.

So I removed the rotor and placed it top down on a flat surface, and found that it was concave warped outwards (towards the caseback). I took a watch tool mallet, and hammered the rotor from the bottom until it was beyond flat but actually concave down, towards the movement. Careful, I wouldn't go too far with this, or else you'll stick on the movement. Fortunately you can mallet it a few times in either direction without this being irreversible, if this happens to you.

When I did this, after screwing the caseback on fully, I was able to get free rotor movement, and great pwr reserve. Already adjusted the regulator to ~COSC practically.

and I can attest that this is now waterproof with 4-6 feet of water, and swimming. Nice watch, poor QC on the rotor and caseback hollowed out depth. They should probably hollow out the caseback a bit more.

Sorry for not reporting this earlier, it just seemed so trivial and so unusual I didn't think it was a common experience, and I hadn't heard of any complaints from others so I thought I was the exception...

 

[doctorron]

Very helpful info, but why not this problem with V1?

 

[Jurgenk]

My guess is that V1 has a different caseback (I know its supposedly more accurate w/ engravings and #s)

 

[babola]

Very helpful info, but why not this problem with V1?

I compared the pictures of the A7750 mov't that comes with V1 with the mov'ts that came in both of my V2 Skylands, and noticed there's a difference in fit and finish (appart from engraved rotor on V1), and some finer details actually look slightly different. My guess is that V1 and V2 Skylands come with the 7750 rep movements from the two diferent mov't factories.

The 7750 that comes with V1 closely resembles the one that comes in the latest batch of ultimate BCEs, very very similar finish between the two, although BCEs don't come with engraved rotors.

V1 and V2 Skylands are made by two different factories, and priced differently. I'd stick with so called "V3" Skylands, these are basicaly V1 with fixed up half dot lume at 3 o'clock marker. Bezel is nicer, dial seems to be closer to gen a tad, and the lume is reportedly better than V2. The only off-putting thing is the longer chrono pushers, they really look out of sync, but if you're not too much hooked up on finer details, go with this one.
...and the 'V3' is more affordable...

babola

 

[babola]

So apart from the "pubic hair removal" and "mallet to the rotor" methods...anyone else cares to share some interesting stories on their experiences with dodgy A7750 mov'ts?

 

[doctorron]

Once again, very good info. Thanks. Maybe I will go with the V1 with fixed dot in PVD. But then again, I'm now concerned.