The Breitling Avenger Blackbird

The Breitling Avenger Blackbird caught my attention just from its name alone. Why? Well, because those two names – Avenger and Blackbird hail from two different families in Breitling’s inventory.

Avenger watches like the Super Avenger, Avenger Chrono, and the Avenger Seawolf come from the Aeromarine series, while the Blackbird, which was originally satin finished when it was first released, came from the Windrider series. Immediately my mind was flooded with images of what I thought were very cool hybrids of the two designs. The fact is, the Avenger Blackbird was nothing like I imagined and that’s maybe for the best.

Breitling keeps the rugged aesthetic alive and well in this new model but crafts it from black DLC titanium for performance purposes. This is the first watch from the Avenger line to be made from black DLC titanium so in that respect it gains quite a few points. The case is large coming in at 48mm across. The textured main crown is screw locked as per usual with Breitling.

The 120-click unidirectional bezel is ratcheted and allows the wearer to measure elapsed times while diving. Breitling fits this timepiece with their relatively new military strap, which is made from nylon. Breitling’s site doesn’t specify but I am pretty sure the strap is secured using a pin buckle made also from black DLC titanium. The water resistance on this watch stands at 300 meters.

Covering the black dial is a scratch resistant sapphire crystal, glare proofed on both sides. The dial features salmon colored Super-LumiNova® on the black steel hands and hour markers. At the 3 position is a date aperture bordered in white to highlight it against the dial. The sweeping seconds hand is tipped in red for easy legibility.

Powering the Breitling Avenger Blackbird is a Swiss made self-winding caliber Breitling 17, which is a modified ETA movement. This movement vibrates at 28,800 alternations per hour and is officially certified a chronometer by the COSC.