You've Never Seen a Dress Watch Like Echo/Neutra's Rivanera

If you don’t yet know Italian microbrand Echo/Neutra, that should change right now. They make some solid tool watches, but the dressy Rivanera manages to stand out in a crowded market for being classic yet simultaneously surprising and creative all at once. There's nothing else out there quite like it. And, launching today, its newest version features a white dial that, we feel, brings exactly the life and legibility the design deserves.

We got to see this model and take some pictures just ahead of the launch and, as you may have already gathered, found it exciting and impressive. In short, it's just really cool, fun, and even comparatively affordable, and those aren't things that can often be said of watches of a comparable style.

You’ve seen rectangular dress watches á là the Cartier Tank and Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso. And you’ve probably seen more brands still take a stab at this archetypal form only to get it wrong or to seemingly offer a lesser alternative to the aforementioned icons. Some can be attractive in their style, but few are actually interesting in and of themselves. But Echo/Neutra did something totally different and unexpected with the familiar design brief.

For a watch of this style, bead-blasted titanium is the opposite of what almost anyone would think of. Precious metals (which are usually heavy) or at least polished steel are the standard. Though typically considered industrial and sporty, the Rivanera is an unintuitive combination of materials and finishes with an otherwise elegant design. Does it work? You bet.

Rather than clashing, it results in compelling contrast. But they also get away with it, in part, because they nailed other key elements, like proportions. So many brands get this part wrong when reinterpreting the Tank style. Measuring 40mm lug-to-lug and 27mm wide, it has the classic wearing experience on the author’s 6.5in (17cm) wrist that you want in a watch of this style. And most importantly, it’s thin — very thin.

At only 5.9mm (including 0.4mm added by the sapphire crystal) and in titanium, its wearing experience is almost unfamiliar for mechanical watch fans. That is until you perhaps think of quartz, as normally only quartz watches are this thin and light. The caseback, however, reveals through a round window the manually wound Swiss ETA/Peseux 7001, decorated with Geneva stripes that, again, stand out amid the caseback’s matte finish.

Similarly, there are thin, subtle polished elements along the case sides to catch the eye — a touch that helps the bead-blasted finish feel well considered and offsets the case’s otherwise complete lack of bling. Those polished elements echo the lip of the sapphire crystal when you move around in the light, and you'll also notice that the applied indices catch a glint, too.

When the Echo/Neutra was first released, it was interesting and exciting for all the above reasons. The first two versions came in black and gray colorways, however, and I immediately imagined it with a white dial and clear, stark legibility.

In fact, I even went and photoshopped an image to visualize what the white dial I imagined would look like. But now it’s real, and seeing it in person, it’s even cooler than envisioned. It’s the Echo/Neutra Rivanera — nay, the Tank-style watch — I wanted.

We’ll cover the Echo/Neutra brand and the Rivanera in greater depth in an upcoming issue of WatchTime’s print magazine, but it’s available now from the brand for a price of $1,490. Pictured here on a dark green Horween shell cordovan strap, it also comes with a black calf leather one.

To learn more, visit Echo/Neutra, here.