An Affordable Mechanical Moonphase Field Watch: Echo/Neutra Averau 39 Moonphase PVD Green
This is actually the second one of these echo/neutra moonphase watches that I’ve owned. I discovered this when looking for an affordable true moonphase watch (as opposed to a sun and moon indicator) that I liked. I found this particular line from this Italian brand and in this review I’ll attempt to explain my fondness for these watches by examining the specs, movement, positive points, negative issues of the watches as well as going into a little detail about the brand itself.
Specifications
Diameter 39mm
Lug to Lug 46mm
Thickness 13.5mm
Lug Width 20mm
Weight 147g
PVD Coated Stainless Steel
100m Water Resistance
Screw Down Crown
Sellita SW280-1 Movement
Brand
Based in Northern Italy, the founder of Echo/Neutra Nicola Callegaro, a trained architect, and Christiano Quaglia, an Aerospace Engineer take inspiration from the Dolomite mountains for many of their designs. These two professional designers take this inspiration from the Dolomites, along with a passion for adventure sports and a true enthusiasm for watches when creating their watches. After starting on Kickstarter in the late 2010s Echo Neutra has become a favourite among enthusiasts who find themselves drawn to independents and microbrands.
The second hand of all the brand’s watches have a red and white tip that matches the posts that line the edges of the roads on the Dolomites. These nods to the famous mountain peaks can also be seen on the caseback illustration and crown signatures of E/N’s watches.
Positive Points
This is a gorgeous watch. Field watches can look a little plain as the original point of them was to be a watch for soldiers out in the field (hence the name Field Watch), and should therefore be as easy to read as possible so that anyone can tell the time with just a quick look. While you can still easily read the time with this watch with the clearly printed indices and numerals in a pure white that stands out very clearly against the mostly black dial there is still a lot going on. A lot of field watch purists may not approve of that prefering the more minimalist field watch look of something like a Hamilton Khaki Automatic, that is roughly comparable in price, but I really do prefer this, which is why I still have one of these in my collection (and I'm considering another), and I no longer have either of the two Hamiltons I've bought. I enjoy a busy dial that has a lot going on, and while this dial is clearly busy with the long name echo/neutra Averau at 12 a discrete colour matched date display at 3 'Automatic' written in red text at nine and last but certainly not least a fantastic moonphase complication at 6.
Now that I've mentioned the moonphase I should talk a bit about that it shows the phase of the moon in both the northern and southern hemispheres and in my opinion is a more interesting visualisation of a moonphase display than something like my Orient Star Mechanical moonphase, which acts much like a standard date wheel. Echo/Neutra also make use of something called a Big Moon complication, which I might actually prefer, but this dial is just so much more interesting looking with that green sheen, I can't say whether this is a limited edition release as it is no longer being advertised on Echo's website, but I do not believe so, either way I can definitely recommend getting this watch.
Another big plus for me with this watch is the case, yes the all black case looks great, with that pvd coating (more on that later) but that is not the best thing for me with this watch (although it doesn't hurt), the best thing for me are in the case specifications. One thing I dislike about some field watches, particularly the Hamilton watches I mentioned earlier, are their very long lugs. I had a Hamilton Khaki Automatic in 38mm and the long lugs made it wear much larger than that, wheras the smaller, curved lugs on this watch make it feel like the 39mm watch that it is. That with the 100m water resistance secured with a screw down crown is a nice feature to have and definitely not a given with a field watch that doesn't have the requirements of something like a diver.
Negative Issues
In all honesty I do not have a lot of negative issues with this watch. It was my plan to write a review of this watch earlier but as with my Clemence Photic Diver this watch just seemed too good at this price point, does it have a movement as technically impressive as a JLC Master Ultra Thin Moonphase? Or even a Longines Master Collection Moonphase? Of course not, but at a price under 1000EUR that can't be expected as those watches sale at over 12000EUR and 3000EUR respectively, and as I've hopefully already shown, this is a much more practical watch than those dress type pieces.
My main issue with this piece is in the coating. I worry about having a pvd coating. Other watches I've had with this type of coating scratch easily and once scratched can not be fixed. Another issue, a much smaller one, but still when the watch is this good a bit of nitpicking is needed, is that I'm not so keen on the look of the moonphase complication when there is a new moon, it's one of the reasons I prefer Echo/Neutra's Big Moon complication, but this is not an issue most of the time when the moon shows.
Movement
This watch uses the Swiss Made Sellita SW280-1 movement, which is based on the ETA 2800 developed by the Swatch group. The movement has twenty-six jewels, and boasts a power reserve of forty-one hours and a beat rate of 28800bph. For a watch under a thousand euros this movement is as good as you could expect. When I've checked the accuracy of the movement with my WatcheePro app I got an accuracy of +3.9s/d, which is COSC levels of accuracy, and shows that this watch can be very accurate. Of course this movement's stated accuracy is +/- 20s/d, and of course a movement as affordable as this, which has a moonphase complication, date display and hacks, can't be expected to be COSC accurate as standard. The movement also is not a bad looking one, which makes me a little disappointed that it can not be seen through a display caseback, but I'd rather have a solid caseback than loose something like the amount of water resistance or thinness of this watch.
Conclusion
As you can easily tell I really like this watch. As I said earlier Echo/Neutra have become a well respected brand in watch enthusiast circles, and I do believe that this respect is well deserved. I probably won't be getting any of the rest of their current line up as I prefer a watch with a date complication and their other ones don't have that, although I am very tempted by their divers, and I will almost certainly be getting another one of these Averau watches, they have recently brought out a white dialed full lume variant with a Big Moon complication that is just calling out to me. This one is definitely a keeper and one that I really can not recommend highly enough.