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I usually avoid smaller watch brands at all costs. They claim to “take out the middle-man,” but my experience says that usually results in a poorly finished watch that feels tacky on the wrist. The reality is that most of these brands are using Chinese parts, replica Japanese movements, and simply slapping their logo on the dial, calling it a day. The result is a watch that over-delivers on the spec sheet and under-delivers on your wrist. It’s like putting a BMW M4 engine into a Hyundai Sonata—it’s fun for about five minutes.
Still, I completely understand the appeal of the fantasy. You’re saving hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars on a watch that has the same movement as the Oris you really wanted. However, most of the time, you quickly realise that you should have just bought the Seiko, Hamilton, or even saved up and bought the watch you really wanted in the first place.
It’s about scratching an itch, but what do you do when you’ve made the “right” decision enough times, and your drawer is full of Q-Timex reissues and Seiko 5 Sports? Well, it might be time to make a wrong decision and give one of those smaller, “micro” brands a try. Having done exactly this more than a few times over the years, the VAER A5 Tactical Field Auto (from USD$659) is the one that I keep coming back to.
VAER A5 Tactical Field Auto Key Specifications
Price: USD$659
- Material: 316L stainless steel with matte black PVD coating
- Case size: 40mm diameter
- Lug-to-lug: 48mm
- Thickness: 10.4mm
- Lug width: 20mm
- Crystal: Single-domed sapphire with AR coating
- Water resistance: 10ATM / 100m
- Crown: Locking screw-down crown
- Movement: Japanese Miyota 9015 automatic (self-winding)
- Frequency / Power reserve: 28,800 bph / 42-hour power reserve
- Accuracy: -5/+15 sec/day timing tolerance
- Assembly: Assembled in the United States
We’re often inundated with review requests from smaller watch brands, and to be completely transparent, we turn down 98 per cent of them because they aren’t worth recommending to our readers. However, I’d heard good things about VAER, and several of our readers had asked about them, so when the brand approached and offered to send a watch over for review, it was one of the rare occasions where I answered “yes.” That was six months ago… and I didn’t want to jump into this review too quickly without really wear-testing the watch until I was comfortable enough to recommend it.
Now, having spent more than 100 days with this watch on my wrist, I can confidently say that I’ve been mightily impressed by the VAER A5 Tactical Field Auto.
What initially caught my eye was the combination of a 40mm case diameter, a Japanese Miyota 9015 movement, a screw-down crown, and a single-domed sapphire with an AR coating. With these specifications, you’re talking about a watch that would cost more than AUD$1,000 in today’s inflated market, and you still couldn’t get your hands on this watch’s closest competitor, the manual-wound Hamilton Khaki Field Mechanical in PVD black (from AUD$1,125).
When the watch arrived, I didn’t expect it to feel this premium. I’ve always been a Seiko enthusiast, but I fear that some of their 5 Sports models, which are currently manufactured in China, may undermine the brand’s reputation. Here, it immediately feels every bit its price point and then some. This is especially true around the bezel, where smaller brands often struggle with finishing. There are no manufacturing defects to speak of on the VAER, the domed crystal glass sits perfectly flush in the black PVD case, and it feels remarkably high-end before it’s even placed on your wrist.
Speaking of which, I specified a single-pass black strap to match the case, but it also came with a FKM dive strap that feels quite good on the wrist, too.
Once you take a closer look, you notice how the details are executed very well, from the green-tinted C3 lume paint (25 layers) that helps it achieve a solid nighttime glow to the A-11 field watch’s Cathedral-style hour, minute, and second hands. The 24-hour and 60-minute markings on the inner and outer dial are without fault, and even the screw down crown is threaded perfectly, which is something that most smaller watch brands can’t get right.
Movement-wise, the 42-hour power reserve from the Japanese Miyota 9015 has been truthful. It’s down on some competitors, including those from Seiko, Farer, and Christopher Ward, but this is only an issue if you don’t wear the watch because it’s automatic. I’ve also noted the -5/+15 sec/day timing tolerance to be accurate, however, I rotate watches quite regularly, so this isn’t something that I usually notice immediately.
Comfort is outstanding, with a 48mm measurement from lug to lug, 10.4mm thickness, and a weight of 74 grams. It wears a little smaller than the 40mm case diameter might suggest, and the sweet spot is wrists ranging from 6.4 inches to 8.5 inches in diameter. This makes it ideal as a tool watch, but it will just as comfortably slide under a cuff for white collar workers. The entire case is rounded, so I had no trouble wearing it all day, every day.
Overall, the VAER A5 Tactical Field Auto has really impressed me, and I’m not surprised that it’s currently sold out on the brand’s website. This is the small watch brand that won’t end up at the bottom of my bedside table drawer, and I think that says a lot about the quality and on-wrist performance of this watch.
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