Mediterranean Sundance.
Man, we don’t know what’s happening with these kids at the moment, but we’ve been seeing some outrageously young upstarts releasing watches in the UK microbrand scene. BVOR blew us away with the Vision recently, and Provoque Watches are doing crazy things with their modular watches. And all these guys are in their early 20s. Put that in perspective. Remember when you were 20? Yeah, you were a twat. So was I. But not these kids. They’re out there starting brands and releasing watches. And we’re here for it.
And so, now we’ve got Noah and Sachin, a couple of lads studying at university together in the UK who decided to direct their shared love of watches into one hell of a final year project. And that’s how they came up with Montera, their own brand and a great new addition to the UK’s impressive and steadily growing microbrand scene. Also, yes, they’ve only just turned 21. Bloody hell.
However, they’re not just looking for course credit here and so have already parlayed the success of their first watch, the Estria, into a new range of GMTs, so they’re not showing any signs of slowing down. But it’s the Estria that we’re looking at today, and this is going to be probably our most complicated review yet, because it’s got some hits and it’s got some misses. This review is going to be like therapy; let’s just see where we end up.
Actually, it’s tricky right away because how do you even categorise this one? It’s not really a dress watch, even if it is a bit of a looker. It’s a little bit sporty, perhaps, but that’s not quite the right fit either. Really, it kind of falls into that most modern of classifications, the GADA ‘go anywhere, do anything’ category.
Now, we’re sorry to start with dessert, but our reviews usually begin with the dial, and with the Estria, what you get is a sweet, sweet apple tart of a dial. It’s immediately noticeable, and that’s certainly been our experience of it. Both in real life and online, people seem to be drawn to it. We post up a video with our favourite ten watch box, and everyone’s like ‘hey, what’s the green dial in the bottom left?’ and they’re right to, as it completely drew us in the first time we saw it too.
In real life, non-watch folk seem slightly mesmerised by it, and when you let them see it close up, they’re cooing like a pigeon that’s been thrown some artisan bread. That’s thanks in part to the colour. The Estria comes in four colours: blue, white, black and this, the Monteverde Green, a sort of soft pistachio that immediately pops. It also shimmers thanks to the laser-engraved stainless steel dial, which has an almost random scratchy pattern to it. In the green, this looks almost like the jungle that Arnie and his squad have to chop their way through in Predator, but all four colours feature the same sort of lines and grooves. It’s a bit of a stunner, and that’s putting it lightly. I mean, just look at it. That said, the dial was actually designed to tie back to the Mediterranean Sea which also works. We just watched Predator far too many times growing up.
What we also like is the detail on the dial because there’s not too much of it. You get Montera’s logo, which is just a sort of geometric pattern that looks like a small web in a set of three concentric circles. We like it. It’s clean, inoffensive and has a bit of interest. Underneath that, the Montera brand name is written in clean capitals and all in a sensibly small font. And in the bottom half of the dial, you just get ‘AUTOMATIC’ in a different, only slightly bigger font. As we’ve said before, you don’t need a load of unwanted spec info so no worries there. It’s a very clean look overall.
We also like the baton indices mainly because of the consistency. We’re beginning to really dislike watches that mix up the indices too much, and so having a set of ten identical ones is welcome. Also, batons are probably the best shape; they have a bit of depth and are lined with full polish. The twelve o’clock position has a double baton, again a sensible choice.
There is a three-hand layout with baton hands for the hours and minutes. These also have a little bit of depth, coming up to a raised roof-shaped ridge along the length. Meanwhile, a stick-style seconds hand completes the set. It’s all elegant and considered and gives you the legibility you need while not taking anything away from the dial.
A simple chapter ring marks out the seconds around the circumference of the dial, and again is a minimal fuss element that’s just there to do a job, and overall, it all seems to fit together well, and everything is well printed and applied. However, one thing does slightly spoil the party, and that’s the date window.
Now, firstly, let us just say that a date complication is the best thing you can have on a watch, and we’re big fans of a three o’clock positioned one and the window sports the same full polished outline as the indices, so there’s even more consistency there. Unfortunately, it’s just not very well-aligned on our model. The window is just fractionally shifted right we think. If you compare it to the stock photo on the Montera website, it’s just slightly off. I mean, it is so subtle that you’d barely notice. But what we did notice is that this means the dates touch the left side of the window. It doesn’t bother us as much as it did on the Phoibos Voyager (but that only bothered us because Phoibos were dicks about it), but it’s an issue nonetheless. However, regardless of its positioning on our model, it feels like the date window should be a little bit further left anyway, almost symmetrical to the nine o’clock index, so that it doesn’t cut into the chapter ring markers. That way, it would fit into the design of the dial rather than feeling like it’s just been cut out as an afterthought. Actually, swerve that. The more we look at this watch, the more we can’t help thinking that a no-date version would probably work better. But look, it’s not a huge issue, and it’s something we’re prepared to live with and Montera have confirmed that it’s something they’ll look to address.
Anyway, this all sits underneath a slightly raised, flat sapphire crystal that has a very small faceted perimeter. Montera do not specify about any kind of anti-reflective coating, but it seems to have some as it handles reflections quite well, and the crystal almost disappears at some angles, which is a good indicator.
What’s not great, though, is the lume, which is probably the worst-performing lume we’ve seen on a watch since our last Casio. It’s about as bright as Dame Judy Dench entering a kickboxing match and lasts just as long.
The case also has its pros and cons. The case diameter is a tidy 39mm, and the thickness (including that very slightly raised crystal) comes in at just shy of 12mm. It does, however, wear a little larger thanks to the lugs, which are a little chunky in terms of width and have a lug-to-lug of 48mm, which is slightly on the longer side, although not unusually large by any means. It’s fine on my nonsensically skinny wrists, but the overall effect is that there’s a lot of case and bezel on show where we feel like we’d rather you saw more of that dial. The overall shape, however, is pleasingly modern but with a slight art deco sensibility to it, but a thinner Henry Archer or Mezei style bezel would really help that dial to show off.
Also, we’re not huge fans of this much full polish. It offers less protection against scratches, lacks a bit of visual interest and can make a watch look a little cheap. Some contrasting polishing might have been nicer (and actually seems to be on some of the images on their website, so we’re not sure if that was the original intention). That said, the inner bezel does have a brushed polish, but it’s hard to notice when looking at the watch as a whole.
The screw-down crown aids with water resistance, but you’re just getting 10 ATM (100 metres) here, which is absolutely fine for a bit of swimming and snorkelling, or cooling off in the summer heat like a future Darwin Award nominee diving into a UK reservoir on a 30c day, but you might want to leave it back in the changing room the next time you go diving.
The logo from the dial is in place on there too, which is a nice touch (the logo really suits the placement), and what we get here is a screw-down crown which operates the watch’s automatic Seiko NH35 movement. That means you unscrew the crown to get to position 0 (winding) and then pull out one position for date setting (position 1) and one further for time setting (position 2). The latter position also hacks (stops) the second hand. The crown is unguarded, which means you can access it easily, making setting the time a breeze. It’s certainly not the fanciest movement, but, as ever, it’s a reliable workhorse that shows up in a lot of other microbrand watches for a reason. We’ve got no issue with it. Hacking, 42 hour power reserve, a 21,600 VPH sweep. It’ll do a job.
You even get to take a look at it, thanks to the display case back. It’s all very no-frills, though, with the movement being completely undecorated and the rotor unsigned. It looks fine, though, and the lack of decorative elements gives the back of the case and the movement a fairly industrial look, which we quite like.
The Estria comes in a surprisingly nice presentation box which includes the watch, of course, which is on a stainless steel bracelet, a complimentary rubber strap and a screwdriver for changing links. This brings us to probably our biggest gripe about the watch but also its saving grace and something cool about the company too.
We didn’t like the bracelet. We can’t lie. It doesn’t feel nice, mostly because all the edges suffer from a lack of chamfer. But on the plus side, it does have screw links and on-the-fly micro-adjusting (thanks to Montera for pointing that out as I missed it because I was bottlefed leaded petrol as a child apparently).
Unfortunately though, there’s no quick release on the bracelet spring bars and getting the bracelet off to switch it out for the included strap was, to put it mildly, an excruciating ballache of a chore. Look, switching out bracelets that don’t have quick-release springs is up there in my list of least favourite jobs, along with grating limes, hoovering the stairs and having to talk to my wife’s nieces and nephews (shut up, kid, I don’t want to talk about Star Wars and what the fuck are you playing the flute for?) anyway. But this was the worst one. I didn’t even do my usual thing of putting the bracelet in a little baggie and into my tin of straps and bracelets. It went back in the box because it’s never getting worn again. Ever. I’m not going through putting it back on the watch, and even if I did, I don’t want to wear it.
HOWEVER (yes, it’s a big however), it’s not all bad news. Firstly, I have to say that the first bracelet they sent me was actually defective, and Montera sorted that out right away, which was great to see. We don’t care if a company makes mistakes. It’s how they react to them that counts, and Montera were cool. Unlike, say, Phoibos, who, to put it mildly, were as disappointing as mid-’90s Metallica and just as overrated.
But the big win here is that the included rubber strap makes up for all the heartache. Aside from the comfort factor (going from the bracelet to this strap is like going from wearing steel-toe cap boots to putting on your favourite slippers), the strap just completes the look of the watch. So much so that we’re struggling to see why you’d even put this thing on a bracelet. It’s like making a great meal and then putting raw onions and beetroot on the side. It can only spoil things, so don’t include it. The only benefit the bracelet had was that it had some brushed polishing on it to help balance out the full polish of the watch, but that doesn’t matter at all, as, rather than colour-coding the strap to the dial, they’ve instead gone for a soft grey colour here which really gives you that contrast and helps the watch balance out that full polish.
Now, I wasn’t sure about that at first. The blue, white and black Estrias all have colour-matched straps and look great on them. But after a while, it all just seemed to work, and in fact, it just improves the watch so much. The strap has a strong taper down from the lugs, essentially fixing the issue of the lugs being a little bit large. It’s chunky and comfortable, giving more of a feel of substance and quality, which is the exact opposite of the bracelet.
Also, it’s the nicest of the four rubber straps, thanks to its contrasting embossed white stitching and strong texturing. And that softens the lack of contrast in the case. A green strap would have worked out fine, but going for grey is just so much more interesting. This is the version of the watch that makes sense, this is the version that’s making people notice that dial even more because the strap is supporting the watch is a way that we don’t know if a different colour would. It tones everything down just enough, and that’s even evident with the buckle, which, after all that, sports a brushed polish.
So, as a whole, there are some ups and downs with this watch, and yet when it all comes together, it’s one of the most noticeable and attractive watches we’ve reviewed. Sure, not everything about it stands up to the scrutiny of a 2500-word review, but as the debut watch from a ridiculously young partnership, the Montera Estria is a really promising start, a good watch in its own right and a statement of intent from a brand that clearly has the potential to do great things.
3.5 out of 5.0 stars
Pros:
+ Gorgeous dial
+ The additional rubber strap is a great inclusion
+ Good customer service
Cons:
– Poor bracelet
– Weak lume
– Date window/wheel could have been better placed and aligned
– Case polishing could be a bit more interesting
Summary:
While the Montera Estria has a few technical and design issues that may or may not bother you, the overall effect is actually pretty stunning. We wish we could collaborate with them for a V2 because there’s a great watch in here waiting to get out. But in the meantime, what you do get is an attractive and unusual piece that is proven to turn heads.
JUST THE FACTS
Availability/Options: This model is currently available in four colour choices (not ‘ways’, we’re not America thank you very much) and while they’re all lovely, the green is the one and you know it. You can order it from Montera.
Brand: Montera
Model: Estria
Style: Slightly-sporty GADA
Case Size: 39mm (48mm lug-to-lug)
Movement: Seiko NH35
Material: 316L Stainless Steel
Lug Width: 20mm
Band Type: Bracelet (yuck) and included strap (yay!)
Price: £255
This watch was purchased by the reviewer but a discount was agreed before hand. This has not affected the review and this article was not shared with Montera in advance of publication.