This Affordable Seiko-Powered Chronograph Is an Homage to the Golden Age of Racing Watches

As a card-carrying member of the watch media (we don’t actually have cards), I’ll be the first to admit that we don’t give Vaer enough love.

The young American watch brand opened for business in 2017 and began domestic assembly in 2018 — and quickly built a reputation for affordable quality and intriguing designs.

Vaer

Vaer has a talent for creating original case and dial designs that feel steeped in watchmaking history but aren’t direct copies. It is a tightrope walk between plagiarism and boredom that many new brands can’t handle.

The R1 Chronograph is a perfect example of how the design team at Vaer adeptly borrows individual elements from various historical watches and collages them together into something refreshing.

Vaer

The result is simultaneously new and familiar, and it is the secret to Vaer’s success. But that aesthetic charm only works because it is draped over a strong core of reliable manufacturing and respectable movements.

Born in the USA

Ryan Torres and Reagan Cook founded Vaer to create the perfect everyday wristwatch. For them, that meant durability and water resistance that could handle surfing and other outdoor sports, easily interchangeable straps and — most importantly — American production.

Vaer

When the duo got to work beta-testing designs in 2016, American watch production infrastructure was non-existent. Two years later, design and organizational headquarters were established in Venice Beach, California and a production facility was opened in Scottsdale, Arizona.

In 2019, Vaer launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund R&D of its first automatic watch, the D5 Meridian dive watch. Torres and Cook wanted to avoid the outside influences and pitfalls of bank loans or VC investments, and they were able to raise $222,000 in one month.

Vaer

Vaer’s first batch of watches was produced overseas and the brand still utilizes offshore production for more affordable models, but it is gradually growing domestic production for higher quality models like the R1 USA Chronograph.

The brand currently produces about 30 references in its Scottsdale facility including dive watches, field watches, chronographs and GMTs. They all use quartz, automatic and meca-quartz movements from revered Japanese manufacturers Miyota and Seiko.

A need for speed

Introduced in 2022, the R1 USA Chronograph was Vaer’s first foray into the stopwatch complication, and its design was influenced by auto racing watches from the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Vaer

The 38mm elliptical stainless steel case is topped with domed sapphire crystal and has a screw-down crown. It is powered by a Seiko caliber VK63 meca-quartz movement with a central seconds counter and 60-minute totalizer at nine o’clock.

Running seconds are registered on the sub-dial at six o’clock and, interestingly, the sub-dial at three o’clock displays a 24-hour (military time) track synched with the central hands.

Vaer

When the R1 USA Chronograph was introduced with two dial options in black or white, it sold out within a month, as did six subsequent production runs.

In response to that success, Vaer has created an orange dial reference that leans even harder into vintage racing watch heritage.

It comes with a quick-release black tropical rubber strap, along with a choice between a two-piece khaki nylon pin-buckle strap, an orange nylon NATO strap, a quick-release black leather pin-buckle strap or a stainless steel “jubilee-style” bracelet.

Vaer

The R1 was already one of Vaer’s most successful designs, but the new orange dial update should be enough for watch fans and media to put some respect on it.

This ambitious young brand is determined to reignite American domestic watch production, and it is making some damn fine watches in the process.

Availability and pricing

The R1 USA Chronograph Orange is exclusively available now from Vaer for $495 with a nylon strap or $615 with a leather strap or stainless steel bracelet.

It is a limited-edition run, which means, unlike its white and black dial counterparts, it will likely be gone for good once this batch sells out.

Vaer

Vaer R1 USA Chronograph Orange

Specs

Case Size	38mm
Movement	Seiko caliber VK63 meca-quartz
Water Resistance	100m

• $615 at Vaer

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