SAS stealth colour marks out rugged Aera M-1 Dune watch

Serial entrepreneur and Aera Instruments co-founder Jas Minhas can trace his horological roots back to the 1960s when his father set up a watch distribution business in Birmingham. Minhas, now 51, lived as far afield as California and South Africa before returning to the UK to launch Aera in 2022 with Olof Larsson whose family business, Nymans Ur, is Sweden’s leading watch retailer.

Aera’s ‘instruments’ follow the classic tool watch theme and rely on the use of tried and tested components to ensure the various models in the line-up are both functional and robust – so that means trusty Sellita movements, tough 904L steel and brightly glowing Super-LumiNova to ensure readability in the dark.

Each new model is produced in limited runs of 300 pieces, with one of the latest being the M-1 Dune featuring a pink dial inspired by (you’d never guess) the SAS.

Pink might not be associated with fearless soldiering, but it’s a historical fact that the colour was daubed on Series II Land Rovers of ‘The Regiment’, helping them to blend in at dusk in the deserts in the late 1960s.

Aera has also embraced the four-wheeled theme with a new take on its C-1 Cloud and C-1 Shadow chronographs launched last year with a new driver’s model called the C-1 Chrono. The watch marries the general style of the  C-1 with a black and white reverse panda dial, a design made famous by some of the great ’60s motoring watches.

The signature, one-piece dished dial features a quick-to-read, red lacquered central chronograph hand for recording times down to one-fifth of a second on the clearly defined rehaut, while minutes and running seconds are displayed on the reverse panda subdials in contrasting white.

Clarity is further ensured by the minute markers engraved into the fixed outer bezel (each one being hand-filled with black lacquer for maximum legibility), while the problem of after-dark timekeeping is taken care of by hand-applied Super-LumiNova that lends a bright green glow to the full length of the C-1 Chrono’s hour and minute hands and the tips of the central seconds and subdial hands. And, thanks to the Globolight treatment of the white-glowing dial logo, you’ll never forget you’re wearing an Aera.

Durability, too, is essential in a driver’s watch that – especially in the heat of competition – needs to be able to shoulder knocks, bumps, vibration and (especially in open cars) the weather.

For that reason, Aera’s favoured ultra-hard, 904L stainless steel has again been used for the 42mm case which features the maker’s wrist-friendly lug design and houses a Swiss-made Sellita SW510 automatic movement – a tried and tested mechanism, one that is well known for its accuracy and reliability.

As normal with Aero timepiece 300 C-1 Chronos will be available, with each being delivered in a black pebble grain leather pouch along with two straps – one in black leather, the other a grey scuba rubber.  Aera M-1 Dune, £1600. aera.co