This article was originally published in the November/December 2022 Issue of the WatchTime print magazine.

Horological startup Aera draws its inspiration from classic tool watches, but adds a modern twist with its rounded case designs. WatchTime performed a quick pre-flight check with the P-1 Pilot, one of the brand?s inaugural watch models.

In 1927, while working for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), Fred Ernest Weick (July 14, 1899 – July 8, 1993) also headed the development of a streamlined, low-drag engine cowling for radial airplanes for which he would win the Collier Trophy just two years later. The NACA cowling represented a major advance in aerodynamic drag reduction, and ultimately fuel efficiency. In this aspect, looking straight from the top at the round bezel of the P-1 Pilot from Anglo-Swiss brand Aera feels very much like standing in front of a silver-colored airplane of such design, and it would certainly have been interesting to bring the P-1 Pilot to NACA?s wind tunnel at Langley Aeronautical Laboratory (LaRC or NASA Langley, the oldest of NASA?s field centers), to see how it would perform in terms of aerodynamics.
The 43-mm pilots? watch comes with a domed, distortion-free sapphire crystal that blends seamlessly with the sloping brushed stainless-steel bezel. The crystal also matches the curved lugs and an overall round case design that, on first sight, appears to pay homage to Marc Newson?s designs for Ike...