as Minhas is no stranger to entrepreneurship. Aera is his fifth venture, and this time he’s returning to his family’s heritage. His father Surjit immigrated to Birmingham from India in the early 1960s. After a spell in the RAF and a job with Triumph, Surjit later joined jewellery retailer H. Samuel before setting up his own watch shop in Birmingham.

“Funnily enough, my father’s first watch shop was called Aero Watch Company,” Jas Minhas recalls. “In the 1970s he formed a watch distribution company, representing brands like Movado, Favre Leuba, Marvin, Jaeger-LeCoutre Atmos Clocks, Luxor, Seiko 5 and Citizen automatic watches in the UK. He also specialised in the distribution of Renata batteries for quartz watches and was their exclusive UK importer for over 25 years.”

The D1 Diver and the P1 Pilot, the first two timepieces of Aera Instruments

Growing up in this world, Jas Minhas dreamed of one day launching his own watch brand. But first, he cut his teeth in his father’s company before heading to Silicon Valley, where he helped launch Jawbone alongside its founders and renowned Swiss designer Yves Behar.

Jas Minhas and Olof Larsson, cofounders of Aera Instruments

A decisive encounter occurred in the 1990s, at a party in Sweden hosted by Ikepod’s founder Marc Newson, for whom Jas Minhas was working as a consultant. There, he met Olof Larsson, heir to Nymans Ur (owned by his father Goran) – Sweden’s premier watch retailer and Ikepod’s local representative back then.

Both men had watchmaking in their blood – albeit from different industry segments. They hit it off immediately, and shared their watch business aspirations. Their conversations continued over the intervening years, culminating in 2022 with the launch of Aera.

The brand has recently become the official timing partner of the RYA YTC (Yacht Time Correction).

The catalyst came in 2018 when Jas, then based in Kenya, reached out to Olof, saying: “I need a change. What about that watch company we always said we’d build together?” After two decades of germination, the decision was made in a split second. “We brought together a group of friends and Aera was born,” Jas Minhas explains.

Limited to 300 units, the D-1 Diver embodies the brand’s values: the watch is reduced to its essentials, with a keen eye for detail.

In a saturated market, what sets Aera apart? “I’m 50 years old and I remember a time when you could buy a Rolex or Omega for about 1,000 euros,” the entrepreneur notes. “Fine watches were more accessible then. Olof and I may come from different segments but we share a love for well-crafted products with a timeless design. When we saw that many watch brands were moving upmarket, we identified our sweet spot at between 1,000 and 3,000 euros. It’s also the segment where Swiss watchmaking has seen the biggest decline, but we see that as an opportunity for us.”

Their approach is a kind of reverse engineering, leveraging decades of industry knowledge to source the best materials and components. “Simply put, our watches need to be beautiful and of the highest quality. Above all, they must be repairable in 50 or 100 years’ time. It’s like creating a horological time capsule.” This philosophy guides their choice of 904L steel, Sellita workhorse movements (which have become the new industry standard) and RC Tritec’s time-tested Super-LumiNova.

The P-1 Pilot is a modern, minimalist interpretaton of this particular category. Sellita SW200-1 movement, 904L brushed stainless steel case, domed dial, white Arabic numerals highlighted by hand-filled Swiss white Super-LumiNova. Edition of 300 pieces.

Launched in July 2022, Aera currently offers limited editions of 300 pieces and plans to release one new watch monthly until the end of the year. The brand has also negotiated several collaborations, most recently with Firmship. Like many watchmaking start-ups, they currently focus exclusively on e-commerce.

One brick-and-mortar exception is Krons Ur in Stockholm (of course!), where Aera watches can be found alongside some of the most prestigious brands.

“We’re going to continue selling direct and online, but we’re also planning to open other physical sales outlets,” Jas Minhas explains. “We don’t quite fit the mould of micro-brands or established names, so we’re still carving out our niche. But what we do know is that many collectors dream of helping build a brand from the ground up. We like to feel that we offer them that, when they join the Aera family.”