Alcadus is releasing 2 watches with their current Kickstarter campaign the "Dromo" which is a vintage inspired dive watch, and the Opus V2 an aviation inspired tool watch. Alcadus founder Yook Hong had reached out to me on social media about reviewing these pieces, and after chatting with him for a bit I was happy to do so. Both watches are prototypes and there will changes in the final production piece. So keeping this in mind lets just dive into the the watch and at the end Ill give you my thoughts.
Specs:
Keeping in mind this is prototype, I do like the dial and simplicity of it while keeping everything very clean.
The text is clean and even on both models with more refinement once in production. With the Opus I do like the fact they have a color matched date wheel.
The Alcadus logo at the 12 o'clock is something I think is very cleverly done. While its a bit off with its application on the Opus, Alcadus is aware and will be applying very strict quality control efforts on the production models. The indices for the Dromo were very clean for a porotype lumed well and should be even better for production.
The sword style hours hand, baton style minute hand and the second hand with its perfectly placed logo added were all done nicely for this prototype. The white second hand will also be cleaned up a bit for release on the Opus. I do like the brushing on the Dromo even though IM not to big of a fan of brushed it works well on the Dromo.
The crown was easy to use and grip and the red indicator ring just below the threads is a cool feature to let you know the crown is not screwed down all the way. The lume on both shine brightly and this goes for both watches.
Both watches have vertical brushing on the case sides.
One important thing to note that will be improved on the release will be a better gripping on the bezel on the Dromo. The bezel does have a nice 120 click rotation that is smooth its just needs that better grip and will be good to go.
The caseback is screwdown and very solid, inside the watch we see the Miyota movement held in place by a metal movement holder along with the cover seal gasket.
The bracelet will see big improvement with overall better quality with the links, and making sure they don't get stuck on themselves, and a push button milled clasp will be added with 3 micro adjustments and perlage finish.
The BGW9 on the Opus was decent, while it could be brighter for the hour markers, the hands glowed really well. The Grade X1 Super Lumniova C3 for the Dromo was well done.
The watch will come on a stainless steel bracelet, and Alcadus was nice to send some of the leather straps as well. I know the bracelet will be improved upon release but the leather straps I actually like a lot on both. I think the Opus on a leather strap gives it a much more classic look while the Dromo can go either way. The watch wears very well is comfortable on my 7.5" inch wrist.
After spending some time with both the Opus and Dromo for me I think I would go with the Dromo if I had to choose between the two. I think both watches will be great for the $340 Early Kickstarter price. With the improvements they will be making on minimizing the distortion on the crystal along with upgrading the bracelet I think they have fairly nice winner on their hands.
If you are interested in backing the Dromo or Opus, or both you can check them out in further details and specs with the links below.
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