News · echo/neutra

Ceramic at 1,650 dollars, and the lugs are titanium

echo/neutra has added a sand dial to the Averau Ceramic. The case it sits in is the more interesting half of the watch.

Hen & Mills Editorial · 2 min read · 8 August 2026

The echo/neutra Averau Ceramic 3H in sand, its matte black case angled on dark leather — Image: echo/neutra

Ceramic normally arrives with a price rise attached to it. echo/neutra is asking A$1,650 for the three-hand Averau Ceramic, and the matte black case everybody will notice is only half of what is holding the watch together.

The Italian brand has just added a sand dial to the line, in two versions. The 3H is A$1,650 and the chronograph is A$3,350. Nothing else about either watch has moved, so the dial is genuinely the whole of the news, which makes the specification underneath it worth a second look.

The Averau Ceramic 3H worn on a wrist beside a motorcycle helmet, the sand dial catching low light — The sand dial is the only warm thing on the watch. Image: echo/neutra

Titanium through the lugs

Running inside the ceramic is a Grade 2 titanium structure that echo/neutra calls TiFrame. The brand says it carries the case and reinforces the lugs, which it describes as traditionally one of the most delicate points where the strap is attached. That is the right thing to be worried about. Ceramic is beautifully scratch resistant and it does not bend before it breaks, and the lugs are exactly where a watch takes the kind of knock that finds that out.

The caseback is Grade 2 titanium as well, and it is solid. echo/neutra puts that down to classic field watch practice, which is a polite way of saying you never see the movement. Each watch is numbered around the circular engraving on the back.

The caseback is titanium and it stays shut. Image: echo/neutra

Check the spec table, not the blurb

Both product pages carry the same paragraph of marketing copy, and on the three-hand watch that paragraph names a Sellita SW510B. The SW510B is a chronograph movement. Further down the same page the specification table says SW200-1 automatic elaboré, and that is the one to go by. The chronograph gets the SW510B-1.

Twice the money for two more hands

Both watches measure 42mm across with 51.5mm between the lugs, both are rated to 100 metres, both use a screw-down crown and a domed sapphire crystal. What separates them is 4.1mm of thickness, 10.5 against 14.6, and A$1,700.

The Averau Ceramic Chrono in sand, two black registers on a sand dial in a matte black ceramic case — The chronograph, at twice the money. Image: echo/neutra

If you want the chronograph you already know it. For everyone else the three-hander is the better watch and by a distance the better buy, because the money it saves you is most of a second watch. Three straps come at the same price whichever you choose: black textile, black rubber, and a vegan option echo/neutra makes from corn.

As for the dial itself, it works. Sand against matte ceramic reads closer to bone than to beige, and it is the only warm surface anywhere on the watch. On a piece this uniformly black, one warm note is plenty.