Vaer is an independent brand that carefully sources key components and can deliver significant value to customers at a very affordable price. This is evident in the Vaer Automatic range. Program backers who support the Kickstarter campaign will have three options for automatic watches and multiple dial design choices when it opens in July 2019.

Miyota 9015 is available in 4 dial options, including no-date and date variants. All of these will be handmade in Los Angeles. Early Bird $299 ($449 retail).

ETA 2824 – Available in four dial options: date, no-date, and a combination of both. They will be Swiss Made. $449 Early Bird (599 retail)

ETA 2895 – This is Vaer Heritage’s “Dirty Dozen”, with small seconds subdial. These will be Swiss Made with one dial option. $599 Early Bird ($849 retail)

Notice: While the Kickstarter campaign is unfolding (and dependent on demand), minor adjustments may be made to certain options. Two dial options, “Design Light” or “Design Dark”, offer stylish versions of field watches. They use less conventional white dials and slate blue dials and are well complemented with syringe fingers. The integrated date window is an added bonus.

Vaer was a brand I had not heard of until just a few months back. However, there were two other aspects that impressed me about this company. They are pushing to source as much of their labor and parts within the USA as is economically practical and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this become an even stronger hallmark of Vaer down the line. I also found them to be extremely accessible and responsive to any questions I had, even before I knew that they were reviewing my wristwatch. It is an admirable trait to possess.

Mark retired in 2018 after 37 years in the financial services industry. After seeing a Steinhart OVM1 photograph in an online car forum, Mark “discovered watchmaking” in 2015. After seeing a photo of a Steinhart OVM1 in a car forum, he filled two watch boxes. Now he is trying to decide whether to purchase a third. Other pastimes are hiking, car repair, and exploring abandoned military bases.

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. VAER gave us compensation and provided a product as courtesy in return for honest evaluation. This review is purely our opinion.

It was assembled in the USA, using sapphire, crystal, and a lovely military aesthetic. What’s your catch? Young brands often have some kinks, so it’s not surprising that they can be difficult to sell.

This is not always the truth. To find out if these watches are worth the money, check out our VAER watches reviews.

VAER Watches

The watch, with its leather strap and timeless design is a great choice. The only problem I have is the hour hand being slightly different at 12:12. Although I can understand why the seconds hand is off, and how people add hands to watches in cases of human error, I find it annoying that my hour hand at the 12.

While I have personally inspected Vaer watches carefully, I didn’t see any such errors. No assembly line is perfect. Benjamin’s point is correct, but I disagree. An automated line tends to make more mistakes than hand assembly. Small errors and other issues are much easier to find for artisans than for machines. I bet you would see far fewer such mistakes than in large production factories.

Although I love the overall appearance of the watch the band and length are not ideal. Jason B.

I will talk more about the crown sizes in a minute. Now let’s discuss the bands. The leather bands do allow me some flexibility, even if they are the smallest. While it can be annoying, this is something that I will not let go of. The silicone and nylon bands fit perfectly, as does the stainless steel band once you have it sized at a jeweler.

You may find that the leather bands are too tight for your wrists. Keep this in mind as you choose the second band. This shouldn’t matter as long you choose the stainless steel or nylon band.

“Loved this watch. Perfect fit. And the crown. However high it was, the crown would still be there. I could feel it digging into my wrist. It’s for grip. It was for grip. But, a more abrasive approach might’ve seen me wearing it every day–weather in the office and on the sea.” – Anonymous reviewer. This problem is common with watches from other brands. I have to take my watches off while I type on a keyboard. It doesn’t mean a lot that I experienced this issue personally with the C5.

It’s a medium-sized crown in terms of size. As long as you have a good fit with the band that let’s you keep it in place on your wrist, this shouldn’t be an issue for most people. You can only test it out if you have had problems with bigger crowns before. Vaer’s 30-day money back guarantee means that there is no risk of you buying one.

Vaer has also created a range of stylish dive watches that are suitable for collectors who have to be water bound. The D5 features an American movement, while the D7 features a Swiss movement.

If you’re looking to deviate from the classic field watch style, these dive watches are your best choice as they have more in common with a Rolex than standard-issue field watches. Vaer watches also exude James Bond glamour with their elegant style. These specs are comparable to diving watches that cost $2k.

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Editor’s note: Vaer provided a C5 Tradition Black USA quartz watch (40mm), with leather, silicone and steel straps to our writer for review purposes. This is a common practice in gear reviews. However, our writer’s opinions are entirely his own; our writers don’t profit off sales. We strive for honesty and transparency at all times.

Gear Lifestyle

Review of Vaer Watches Vaer Watches Vaer Watches Vaer Watches Vaer Watches Vaer Atlantic

Many people these days are active on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. These platforms are a great place to be if you’re a watch journalist or tuber. This is where I came across Vaer, the Vaer D7 Atlantic, and their diving series. Their sponsored ads on these sites seem very expensive, and they may have used multiple ads. Vaer might not be well-known if these ads have not been seen. American Assembled fieldwatches would have this price tag. It is so affordable! They start at $199, with quartz movements, and sapphire crystals. From what I have seen, they look pretty good as well, and for that price, I think those watches are probably hard to beat. Vaer was founded in 2017 by two friends who are avid watch enthusiasts. They have been very successful so far with their range of field watches. Their ads in 2017 for dive watches caught my attention. I had high expectations of a quality dive watch, at an affordable cost, made in the USA. It is true that they made the exact same watch. However, this isn’t it. Here is my review of the D7. This Swiss Made model is what I am using. This model is Swiss Made with an ETA 2824 motor. But what about the other differences, you might ask? They are all the same. I don’t think so. Today, I am going to review this retro-inspired dive watch and answer the question “Is it worth the Swiss Made?”

https://www.vaerwatches.com/pages/dive-watches Let’s dive right into the pricing. Vaer Dive has two models: D5 & D7. The D5, much like their field watches, are American assembled. The Swiss Made Series D7 watches are the D7. Both models have identical dials, cases backs and straps. Only the price differs is their movement. All models come with a rubber tropic strap. It costs an additional $100 to get the oyster-style stainless steel bracelet. This bracelet is available in two versions: the American (assembled but not manufactured) version starts at $499, and the Swiss Version begins at $799. The website offers a 15% discount for spinning wheels. You will save as much as 15% (at least until the publication of this article). The dial options for the different models are the same, but you only have one dial with the D5. Do you find this confusing or complicated? This is what I feel. It seems like brands have a tendency to make it confusing and complex, but it also makes it easy for customers to choose from a wide range of products. I am not sure what camp you are in, but I prefer things to be a little more straightforward.

On to the watch. Vaer D7 Atlantic’s date window is located at 6 o’clock. You have probably seen this case design before. It has lyre lugs, similar to Omega, and a dial and crown position that makes you think of some of the Rolex Milsub watches, among many others from the 60s. Even more, the broad-sword hands model looks like a Rolex Milsub. This is also intentional. Do we see these designs from multiple microbrands time after time? It is. Are they a good thing? It depends on how you view vintage-inspired and homages by microbrands. Vaer’s dive watches look great. It is possible, however, to be half-robots without internal clocks. Who knows what the future holds? This case is all brushed with no high polish. While this type of watch is not common, it’s one that I enjoy. There are so many watches out there that try to dress up the case with bezel edges and high-polished crowns. Although I enjoy high polishing watches for formal occasions or watches made to look more flashy, this is not the best choice for dive watches. The actual steel is very well polished and has no noticeable rough edges. The crown feels solid and easy to use. It screws right into the cutout of the case, which prevents it from sticking out. It measures 39mm in diameter with a 40mm dial. This is a smaller watch than the original vintage pieces. Additionally, the watch has a wider appearance thanks to its lyrelugs. This means that the watch isn’t too large on my 7 1/2″ wrist. But it feels good enough to be worn all day long without getting in way.

The dial is what you would expect with a watch like this. The Vaer D7 Atlantic is not cluttered with erroneous text, the hands and indices are more than visible, and getting close-up, you can see it is not sloppy when it comes to lume paint and the hour and minute hand being filed properly. The bezel on the other hand, or more specifically the ceramic bezel insert, has an issue. A lot of times, when a watch has a double-domed sapphire crystal such as this, you can have a hard time seeing if the bezel insert markings line up with the dial. The watch will have to be moved around to check that the markings are aligned correctly. This is the end of my explanation. My example does not show the 30 and triangle aligned. This almost suggests that they weren’t centered, but positioned at the edge. But I may be mistaken. The 120 click coin edge bezel itself functions as it should, and is actually quite nice to use, with almost no back play at all.

While the D7 does not come in a variety of options, you do have the option to add straps, such as a tropic or 2-piece nylon, or Horween leather ($50) and an oyster bracelet ($100). This is the area where we have problems. These Swiss-made versions use a Swiss ETA2824 watch movement. They also have the Swiss Made stamp. For $899, the bracelet is yours. It’s just that I do not think it is worthwhile. Many people would prefer a bracelet for their watch but I was expecting more at $900. The standard bracelet has no clasp extension and it uses friction pins rather than screws. You would receive the exact same bracelet if you bought the Miyota model and added a bracelet. However, you will pay a lot more for the Miyota edition. This bracelet costs approximately $300.

Vaer D7 Atlantic looks great, has all the quality materials one would expect of a microbrand, and, as you see, the X1C1 Superluminova does an excellent job keeping it lit at night. The Swiss ETA watch is included in the American version. That’s a good thing. Manufacturing still takes place somewhere else, as is the norm these days. The necessary infrastructure for manufacturing watches in America is not available. Who knows when it might return, unless there are large companies that want to spend billions on revitalizing American watch manufacturing. We need to dig deeper and find out if consumers would be willing to spend money on watches made in the USA. We all know the premium we currently pay for American products and many watch collectors like microbrands for their affordability, and not exactly where they are made.

I know. It seems like I am being hard on this watch. Perhaps, it is true. I just try to think about these watches from the standpoint of consumers. Everything on the D5 & D7 are identical except for the movement. One can argue that the D7 came from Switzerland. If that means something to you, fine. That does not really matter to me. I’d prefer a Swiss movement option. Although it might have been more costly than the Miyota, the expense would have been less than having them assembled outside of Japan. To be completely honest, I cannot recall seeing a watch with identical components that are assembled in two separate locations. As I began this review, my question was: Is it worth buying the Swiss Made version? I don’t think so. That is just my opinion. The D5 is a quality watch, with a Miyota 915 movement. It feels just as good as the ETA 2824. Swiss Made watches are still considered essential by some. The D7 Swiss Made Watch is for you if the D5 is not an option.

If you do not have one, it is possible to save quite a bit of money by purchasing the D5.