This is the P-1 Pilot watch from the team at Aera Instruments, it’s a minimalist take on the classic pilot watch design featuring a Swiss Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement, a domed sapphire crystal, and a 904L stainless steel case.
Aera Instruments, or simply Aera, is a new Anglo-Swiss watchmaker. It’s one of the modern generation of microbrands making a major impact thanks to their focus on design, quality, and world-class Swiss movements.
The P-1 Pilot Watch features oversized markings hand-filled with Super-LumiNova for improved low-light and nighttime visibility.
Aera was founded by Olof Larsson, a dyed in the wool watchmaker who met watch designer Marc Newson purely by chance at the Ice Hotel in Sweden in 2002 at a watch event f0r Ikepod. The two men became friends, the years went by, and in 2022 Larsson launched his own watch brand, Aera.
The purpose of Aera isn’t to reinvent the watch, but rather to create a new line of beautifully designed minimalist tool watches with Swiss movements and prices that were well within the affordable range for the majority of people.
At present, the company has just two watches in production, the P-1 Pilot and the D-1 Diver. Both have a similar design language, however as the names suggest, the dive watch follows the stylebook of classic dive watches and the pilot watch follows the aerospace watch playbook.
The Aera P-1 Pilot Watch
The Aera P-1 Pilot Watch is limited to just 300 pieces for worldwide delivery. Despite the Swiss automatic movement it retails for $1,300 USD, which is far below what you might expect to pay for a similar timepiece from a well-known brand.
The P-1 has a brushed 904L stainless steel case, an open dished dial, a domed sapphire crystal, and oversized markings hand-filled with Super-LumiNova for improved low-light and nighttime visibility. The watch has a diameter of 43mm and it comes with a Jet Black pebble leather strap as well as an additional limited edition Smoke Grey suede strap.
The watch is powered by the Swiss-made Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement, this movement has 26 jewels, a 38 hour power reserve, and 28,800 beats per hour (vph).
Each P-1 is powered by the Swiss-made Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement, this movement has 26 jewels, a 38 hour power reserve, and 28,800 beats per hour (vph). The watch is water resistant to 100 meters, or 330 ft/10 ATM, and each comes with a 3 year warranty.
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Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
