Hands-On with the Aventi Wraith at Sotheby's Auctions

I have been following Aventi since their early days. And by early days, I mean when the brand was crowd-funding the A-10, a more affordable tourbillon option with a sporty aesthetic. The Indiegogo campaign was ultimately successful, raising close to $800,000 USD. Yes, the A10 housed a Chinese tourbillon movement, but there was no other you were going to get a tourbillon watch for just a few thousand dollars. I even managed to pick up an A-10 and still wear it to this day. You can check out my review here.

Flash forward a few years, and Aventi has really matured as brand. I have it on good authority that brand intends to completely retire their models containing Chinese tourbillon movements and focus solely on Swiss Made watches. And from the Swiss made tourbillon watches Aventi has already produced, I think they offer a pretty compelling selling point: daring designs and affordability compared to the ultra-luxury category they are now entering. When looking at Aventi’s new offerings, one can’t help but compare it in design aesthetic to the ultra-luxury brand Richard Mille. While Aventi’s offerings are by no means inexpensive, they offer a lot of watch for well below watch a Richard Mille will cost you.

Case in point is the Wraith, probably my favorite model introduced by Aventi since the brand’s founding. I got the chance to see it at Sotheby’s of all places for a hands-on review. Sotheby’s recently held a luxury watch auction, and one of the first Aventi Wraiths available was up for auction. This just further illustrates the evolution of the brand. Going from a crowd-funding watch brand to having your watch sell for $69,300 USD at auction is a meteoric rise if you ask me (and this was with an estimate of $20,000 to $40,000 USD).

I was taken to a private room at Sotheby’s and was allowed some time with the Wraith. It really is an impressive watch. While I very much enjoy my A-10, my one issue would be that is a BIG watch, and with my 6.75 inch wrist, it feels big. With the Wraith, and most of their Swiss made models, Aventi slimmed down the case size and profile. At 44 x 49 mm, the watch is very wearable. I could see myself wearing this watch every day given the opportunity.

Perhaps the most impressive part of the Wraith A15-1 is the paraiba blue saphite case. And what is saphite? Well, it’s a propriety Sapphire material that is much more scratch resistant and has the ability to be colored almost any way you’d want. Aventi uses a proprietary mix of their saphite, melts it down and carefully shapes the case allowing it to crystalize over the course of about 4 weeks. The blue case of the Wraith’s saphite case was inspired by the tourmalines in Paraiba, Brazil.

As I have already discussed, the Wraith runs on a 68-component Swiss Made Tourbillon movement (caliber GT-01S). The movement and components are made of black Titanium that decorated with Perlage and Anglage. The dark movement contrasted with the white hands makes the Wraith very legible.

Finally, like a Richard Mille and many of the other sporty yet ultra-luxury watches in its category, the Wraith is affixed to a white FKM rubber strap. It is extremely comfortable and pairs well with the the blue case. It would be nice if Aventi included a black strap as well, as white straps can discolor easily.

All in all, the Aventi A15-1 Wraith is a great watch that we are big fans of at Wrist Enthusiast. And the price point is also pretty great too. $24,500 USD for a Swiss Made watch with a tourbillon movement and sapphire case is almost unheard of in the industry. How did startup watch brand like Aventi accomplished this? I’m not exactly sure. But when one of the Wraiths has already sold for almost $70,000 USD at auction (close to triple the retail price), you know the brand is doing something right. You can learn more about the Wraith at Aventi’s website.