Breitling Airwolf watches

The Breitling Airwolf is an analogue-digital pilot's chronograph in steel, built around the Breitling Calibre 78 SuperQuartz, the movement Breitling used in its Aerospace models. SuperQuartz is Breitling's name for thermocompensated quartz: a temperature sensor adjusts the frequency of the quartz crystal, and the movement is certified as a chronometer by the COSC.

The dial combines hands with two negative LCD screens. Between them they run a second time zone, alarm, countdown timer, perpetual calendar and a chronograph that measures to 1/100 of a second, with the central seconds hand used for some functions. On the standard Airwolf every one of those functions is worked through the crown. The rotating bezel turns a slide-rule scale, and the caseback carries an engraved turbine.

The A7836334 is the core Airwolf: a 43.5 mm steel case, 16.7 mm thick, under sapphire, with a compass bezel and black, blue, grey or silver dials. The A7836334.B911 pairs the black dial with a rubber strap. The Airwolf Raven, A7836423, shown by Breitling in 2009, keeps the 16.7 mm case thickness and the Calibre 78 but adds proper chronograph pushers, so the stopwatch no longer has to be run from the crown. Its hands are longer and counterweighted in the manner of the 2009 Aerospace.

The difference between the two lies in how they are worked rather than in how they look: the A7836334 is the crown-operated original with the compass bezel, while the Raven gives the chronograph its own push-buttons.