The Breitling Watch Source Forums

My wife and I are getting new Breitling's to mark our 50th birthdays. I'm getting the new Avenger Blackbird and she's getting the Lady Colt with black dial and diamond bezel. I've tried the Blackbird on and for such a large watch, it still fits great on my 7.25" wrist. My only concern has been the durability of the black coating on the Ti case. I asked at the AD if it was DLC, PVD, or some anodization process and they did not know, nor could they tell me anything about the durability of it.

I know Breitling has other blacked out watches out there, so I thought I'd ask here about owner experiences with the coatings. Since this one has a fabric strap, at least I won't have to worry about bracelet scratches, which seems to be where I always see them show up first on coated watches.

Quite a few topics on the coating. It's a DLC coating applied with a PVD process. Previous DLC models have been over a steel base so may not be directly comparable, but it's s a tough coating but not perfect - it can wear in high rub areas (edges of buckles in my experience) and dings can show the bare metal through from underneath.

Also it can't be refinished by Breitling, so if you ding or chip it there isn't much that can be done. That being said I have had a few DLC models and they held up very well under normal wear. It's a nice piece and blacked out it looks mean.

Thanks guys. I think this one will be worn with care in rotation so avoid unintentional dings of everyday wear. If it does get banged up badly, I guess I could always send it to IWW to have them sandblast it and recoat it.

If you wear it carefully in rotation then you should be fine, but as Roff said, moving parts that come into contact with each other (and/or high wear areas) will still show wear over time.

It's for this reason that I personally steer clear of any surface-coated watch, even though I actually like the look of a few of them. I want my watches to last a lifetime, so the idea of getting an external company to strip and recoat the case doesn't personally appeal to me.

As an aside I actually tried the Avenger Blackbird on again this weekend just gone, and it really is a nice piece - great size and yet still pretty slimline. If only it was black ceramic..........

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Driver8

Site Moderator

I thought I'd share the response I got from the watchmaker at the NYC boutique so others may find it when searching as well...


The specific Diamond Like Coating (DLC) used for our Blacksteel models is a unique patented Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) process for the deposition of pure carbon coating.

The result is a DLC coating with superior mechanical and physical properties compared to coating using other deposition processes. (Effectively the coating is fused into the metal rather than a separate coating)

Specific properties :
Composition 100% Carbon
Hardness > 5’000 HV (316L stainless used in out cases is 140 HV)
Optimal adhesion (no peeling off, high corrosion resistance)
Thickness ~ 0.001 mm (very thin -> no significant weight difference compared to steel case)
Temperature of deposition < 100°C

Regarding after-sales service, due to the hard coating, polishing or refinishing is not possible. If scratched after an extreme shock (will not happen if worn normally), the component has to be replaced.

Hope this answers your questions.

The UPS guy just delivered this!

Nice pictures Baco. Treated myself to one 2 months ago. Just need to source a nice black leather strap as I think it would set the dlc off beautifully

Sent from my Nexus 4

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Superocean (black dial 2008 model), Avenger Blackbird

Wow, lucky you. Congrats!
I wish my UPS guy was as nice as yours

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"It is just a matter of time!"

Peter Gunny makes a strap he calls Canvas Noir and it's at the bottom of his webpage. It looks like a distressed canvas with red contrast stitching. I think it'd go great with this watch too.

That said, I'd like to find a nice distressed black leather one to go with it as well.

Loving this one and the domed sapphire is icing on the cake.