Aevum Timepieces Advance Carbon Limited Edition

If you're looking for a 42mm automotive racing watch, we think this one will be hard to beat at around $300 USD. As well as featuring a real woven carbon fiber dial, a unique tire tread leather straps design that is absolutely fantastic, and an outstanding black and yellow racing theme design, all of which are obvious at a glance, there are many other features that help to set this watch apart. We particularly like the chapter ring, which has the markings of a camshaft degree wheel, and lots of little touches like the valve duration chart stamped into the leather keeper, the cam timing mark, (lumed triangle at 3 o'clock,) or the illustration of an adjustable cam gear on the crown.

Adding yet more interest is the fact that each Aevum Timepieces' Advance Carbon Limited is personally assembled by the one man behind this genuine microbrand, Bryan Farquharson, who also hand makes all of the leather straps himself, buying the leathers, cutting, dying and stitching each one by hand. Bryan is an automotive professional who also races on both drag and circuit courses, and you can tell that this watch is very much a labor of love. Bryan is very hands on with all of his watches, and is currently learning CNC machining as he hopes to make his own cases too.

Engineered for tough environments, the Advance Carbon Limited features scratch resistant ion plating on the marine grade 316L stainless steel case, (which is nicely finished in a contrasting mix of brushed and polished surfaces,) scratch resistant sapphire crystal, 200 meters of water resistance with a multi-gasket screw down crown, (better and deeper than many dive watches,) the ultra-reliable Seiko NH35A automatic movement, and a liberal application of Swiss Super-LumiNova BGW9 lume.