The Breitling Blackbird Chronograph Limited Edition Blacksteel is one of my favorite introductions by Breitling this year. It features a stainless steel case that has a high-tech Diamond-Like Carbon coating.

The bezel is DLC with a matte finish. Everything else, the case, the crown, and the pushers are polished DLC. The shiny stealth grey finish almost reminds me of a pearl-gray paint job on an Audi. The finish looks really good, and it’s extremely scratch-resistant.

The Blackbird is powered by a Breitling Caliber 44 chronograph movement, officially chronometer-certified by the COSC, like all Breitling timepieces. The movement is automatic and operates at 28,000 vibrations per hour, with 38 jewels. It features a 1/4th of a second chronograph, with 30-minute and 12-hour totalizers.

The panorama date window at 12 o’clock is a nice touch. The styling reminds me of the Lange Datograph outsize date display.

The 43.70 mm case is steel, with an ultra-hard DLC treatment, which is highly corrosion and scratch-resistant. The crown is screw-locked. The bezel is bidirectional rotating and ratcheted. The glass is a cambered sapphire crystal, glare-proofed on both sides. Water-resistance is 300 meters.

The dial is in trophy black with red and white contrasting markers and hands. The bezel has a matte grey finish, which contrasts nicely with the shiny grey case, pushers, and crown. The solid caseback is steel, and has been polished and engraved with the edition number.

The Breitling Blackbird Chronograph LE comes with either an Ocean Racer rubber strap with the Blacksteel pushbutton folding clasp for $7,435 or a Diver Pro II rubber strap with a carbon-treated tang-type buckle for $6,785. Limited to 2000 pieces.