Vintage Vibes Diver

TL;DR-My second Vaer is a very high quality American assembled automatic that showed up on their pre-owned shop. Woot!

Vaer was my first micro brand. I bought an S3 entry level quartz offering with sapphire crystal and 100m water resistance for an anniversary trip to Hawaii. I wasn’t collecting watches then. In fact, I was wearing an Apple Watch and wanted something more durable for surfing lessons. It was perfect for that mission.

I caught the bug for automatic watches a couple years later. As I learned more about watches, I kept looking at Vaer’s higher level offerings but other shiny things caught my attention, and credit card info. As much as I admired them, I wasn’t sure they were as good a value as some other options.

Eventually, I was looking for a more traditional looking dive watch than the orange-dial Scurfa Treasure Seeker I got. I recalled Vaer’s Tropic, with its roulette wheel dial design. While not an eye-catching color, it has a distinctive look among many derivative diver designs. Though I didn’t know its inspiration at the time, it did strick me as a bit retro/vintage. Enter the inspiration: JLC Deep Sea Alarm Automatic, c. 1959

JLC did a reissue in 2011 but otherwise it’s not a design copied as much as many other dive styles. Though this is clearly the inspiration, the Tropic shrinks the dark roulette wheel, leaving a wider track around the outside. And while the black inner disk on the JLC served as alarm indicator, Vaer playfully applied a delta in the 12-o’clock spot, inverted from the JLC triangle.

While many Vaer dials are relatively plain printed affairs, the roulette design is very crisply executed with lume precisely applied in all the white divider lines. The applied delta elevates the whole thing just a bit.

With a Miyota 9015 movement, 200m watcher resistance, double domed AR coated sapphire crystal (and case back) it’s a significant step up from my first Vaer.

The retail price had me on the fence until I discovered Vaer’s Pre-Owned Shop. A few examples disappeared quickly and I decided the next time I saw one I’d get it. And here it is!

I now realize it’s entirely worth its retail asking price. I’m very impressed with the quality. But happy a fine pre-owned example showed up when it did.