Blancpain

Marcus Hanke
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A statistically more relevant experience ...

... might be that of the heaf watchmaker of Austria's Swatch Group Service Centre. In Vienna, all Austrian Blancpains with Piguet 118x, all Breguet Type XX with L?mania movement, and all Omega chrongoraphs, both, conventional and co-axial are serviced (and also the Glash?tte Original PanoGraph, which is also a Flyback mechanism). From his former assignment, he also knows the Zenith cal. 400 (405 as flyback) very well.

Some time ago, I asked him specifically about the colported lack of reliability of the BP chronographs, compared with the other brands he is servicing. He stated (I am not a watchmaker myself, so I cannot check his info from own experience or knowledge) that the ratio of damaged chronos returned for repair/warranty to those sold is not different from the brands using other movements. Then I asked him if he would buy a BP as sports chronograph for himself. After a while he answered: "maybe not as true sports chronograph." He explained to me that he considered the Piguet's ability to withstand massive abuse to be inferior to that of other movements. Most BPs he got back with damaged movements showed distinct traces of being "beaters". If the watch suffers massive hits or bumps, he explained, the Piguet movement could be more prone to damage than the L?mania, the Omega or the Primero. The Flyback function itself has nothing to do with it (unlike the Dupraz flyback modification of the 7750, which is said to have been very unreliable, which is the reason why it is widely discontinued).

So I think that in normal everyday use, the chance of a BP chrono showing faults is not higher than with a Breguet or Omega.

Regards,
Marcus

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