There’s no justice in the world
We all know this right, but one of the lesser cases of injustices is how the Alcadus Opus version 1 didn’t get backed on Kickstarter. I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen some shockers get backed and somehow gone ahead, so when a carefully designed and fairly restrained, time only watch with an excellent movement doesn’t get backed, it makes you wonder.
Despite all this, the man behind Alcadus forged ahead and made the Opus 39 a reality anyway, and in some fun colour combinations for good measure. |
If you’re reading this article, you may have come here from my YouTube video on the excellent Dromo and if that’s the case, you should know that the Dromo is going live on Kickstarter, 11 March 2022 and I don’t see a world where this does not get backed, so get on it.
So lucky for me in addition to the Dromo, I had a lend of the Opus 39 (version 1), so let’s get stuck into this very well made and attractive watch, with still a few available for sale at a competitive price as I write this. |
My impressions after some time with the watch
Firstly, if I want to call out one excellent feature. The original Opus has a warranty of 2+1 years so 3 in total if you do the following: Your warranty will be extended 1 year (3 years total) when you authenticate your purchase using the NFC-enabled warranty card. Sure, the business has to stay in …business but this is very impressive and should make it easier to justify a purchase. The slightly more cost effective version 2 of the Opus will still have a 2 year warranty, something few microbrands offer.
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I have the intriguing ‘Phantom Grey’ model on loan and it’s extremely unusual. There’s a black and also a white option that are much more traditional but I wanted to check this one out because despite this being a dark, almost purple grey, it’s a fully lumed dial! Sure, dark lume never lasts very long but it’s always fun.
You will notice the dial slightly shimmering upon returning inside after some time in the sun or even daylight and it’s much more subtle than the white full lumed dials that are almost too over the top for me, they tend to glow so brightly that a sleeve is required to cover them up in a dark cinema to not be distracting. I love this little feature and it’s reason alone to get the grey one. Taking a closer look at the dial, we see simple black markers, a tiny date window, a thick hour hand and slender minute hand and finally a hardly there seconds hand. It’s very restrained. The centre is coloured to match the dial to give the appearance of the black hands floating against the dial. This is a very common Sinn trick (sure plenty of others do it too but it always makes me think of Sinn) and the founder of the brand definitely takes inspiration from Sinn, a brand he respects very much.
The main take away here is that despite a fairly dark dial, legibility is no problem even at a quick glance. That said, I have a personal vendetta against tiny date windows. I hate them. But everytime I mention this, there are plenty of people that think it’s great to have a slightly hidden date complication. At least it’s very subtle so you could almost completely ignore it and pretend it’s not there. I have. |
Covering the dial is an excellent box sapphire crystal. I say excellent since it’s both very attractive and also seems to be covered in many layers of AR coating. This is a wise decision on such a dark dial where daylight viewing could be a challenge. The dial is surrounded by a high polish bezel that I’m pretty sure would be durable since you’d have to hit it at a very precise angle to scratch. The rest of the case is unremarkable, but a classy affair in all brushed metal.
The crown is interesting. It’s a large cupcake style, signed with the logo. It’s not protected but that’s ok, you just have to make sure not to get stuck in anything. The party trick, borrowed from far more expensive brands, is a red marked tube that is a clear visual indicator of whether the crown is tightened properly. This is not only attractive but very useful too, I seriously wish every watch had this and I was surprised to find it here on a small microbrand. A bonus secondary party trick can be found on the crown also, the logo is lumed. This is becoming more and more common with microbrands and it’s such a fun feature. |
Flipping the watch over we get a great look at the the ETA 2842-2. This is the elaboré version of the movement and we have a customized skeletonized rotor, meaning the Alcadus logo on the rotor. Again, this is something you certainly don’t see very often and I think it’s very impressive to see this sort of quality out of a microbrand, particularly one where the founder took the decision to go ahead and produce watches despite a Kickstarter campaign that did not go to plan.
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The oyster style bracelet is well made with a decorated buckle and clasp with enough micro adjustments to get a comfortable fit. What is particularly handy is the quick release function which makes it so easy to change over to one of the other straps included, like the light grey nubuck that I have mainly worn it on.
This is all great of course but in a final nod to us, the customers, the case is drilled so you can easily use your own 20mm straps should you prefer that – but honestly, no need. The supplied straps & bracelet is superb. |
Movement
Movement – Automatic Swiss ETA 2824-2 (elaboré) with customized skeletonized rotor Strap & Bracelet
Case
miscellaneous
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Final Words
As I’m writing all this, it’s hard to understand how I’ve not heard about the brand until I was contacted for this review. Especially since I'm constantly on the look out for fun new brands. The quality is comfortably up there with some of the best microbrands in terms of quality and I like the look as well.
It’s not shouty and perhaps it might come across as a little plain, but the devil is in the detail and there are so many impressive small details on display here. The Alcadus Opus version 2 is about to be launched on a new Kickstarter campaign and seriously, this must go ahead since we’re depriving the watch world of some truly great watch pieces otherwise. |
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