Beaufort Aerotimer First Impressions

Back in January I was looking at the Beaufort Site after watching a couple reviews on YouTube ( The Time Teller and Just One More Watch for those interested). I was mainly curious about the Beaufort Cavilli Diver (I love a vintage inspired diver). However, when I saw a picture of the white dial Aerotimer I was smitten. 

It didn't take a lot of rationalization to hit the buy button. My collection does not have a dress watch at the moment but has a plethora of divers so the Aerotimer made more sense. Plus the value proposition of this watch is insane.  I paid $639 NZD which was only $551 CAD or for my US friends only about $431 USD. For $550 I was getting a Swiss Movement (STP 1-11 Automatic), Single Domed Sapphire Crystal with anti reflective coating, a display Caseback with a Sapphire Crystal, and 100m of water Resistance. I have no idea how they are doing this at that price.

Anyway, after patiently waiting for over 2 months my Aerotimer finally arrived today and I have to say I'm impressed. 

To the naked eye this watch is pretty flawless. The dial is beautiful, although it is more of a crisp white than I thought it would be; on the website it looks to have a bit of gray in it. The applied numerals look great and stand out against the white dial as do the sword hands. One of my pet peeves with white dials is they often have silver hands which make quickly telling the time hard but with the black edge around these hands that is not a problem.

The STP 1-11 movement is gorgeous. It's a slightly improved clone of the ETA 2824-2 which isn't copyrighted anymore. I believe I read it's manufactured in the Italian part of Switzerland, I'm assuming that's Ticino. Anyway compared the the NH movements I'm usually staring at it's stunning.

The case finishing looks to be well done with brushed sides and a polished bezel and has a nice engraved logo on the crown.

Finally the BGW9 lune on the hands and at the 12, 6, 3, and 9 indices seems to glow quite happily after a quick pass by the light I bought to keep winter depression at bay.

As for flaws there aren't many. 

One, I don't like leather straps. There is never a hole that seems to fit my wrist just perfect. Sadly this leather strap doesn't break that trend but it's pretty close just a smidge loser than I would like and to be honest the watch wears very comfortably. 

The 22mm Lug Width was an odd choice. It looks fine but I think a 20mm Lug Width would have made the watch look just a tiny bit more classy.

Now I did dawn my Loupe to give it a quick close inspection. When admiring the movement with some magnification I noticed there is a small spec or hair unnoticeable to the naked eye under the glass pretty much dead center to the rotor. Even though I can't see it with out the Loupe knowing it's there will eventually bug me enough to open the back and clean it off. As a watch modder and want to be refurbisher this doesn't intimidate me. For those who are not comfortable cracking the back off a watch; well they would either need to live with it knowing it's there or they would need to send it back and hope Beaufort will take care of it.  

Anyway my first impressions are pretty positive. If the only legitimate complaint I can find is a super tiny spec of dirt under the display caseback on a $550 watch I really don't have much to complain about. I've had it in my hands for maybe half a day so long term I may notice something that changes my mind but for know I'm very happy with my purchase.