There are many paths to creating a microbrand and Alcadus follows a classic one within the microbrand scene. Their founder, Yook Hong, first found a love of watch design through Seiko modding, but eventually wanted to expand his designs beyond the limitations of working with watches from another brand. As such, he created ALCADUS (a combination of the words ‘altus’ and ‘cadence’ in Latin meaning ‘noble rhythm’) in 2018. Since then, they have produced low quantity watch series for dedicated collectors. I have been hands-on with their latest model, the Alcadus Quantra Gemstone and Guilloché MOP to learn all about them.
Picking the watches up, the cases are based on the 2024 Quantra series and maintain the core specs of that model. That means they measure 36mm in diameter with a 10.5mm thickness, keeping them quite compact on the wrist. Though a 44mm lug-to-lug means that it sits on the wrist like a larger watch and doesn’t feel too small. Plus, the overall size is perfectly in keeping with the continuing popularity of vintage proportions.
While the case is based on an older model, the dials were designed completely fresh for the new edition with the goal of becoming the true centrepiece features of the watch. In front of me I have four of the five variants. Of the five they are split across two distinct styles, the Alcadus Quantra Gemstone and the Alcadus Quantra Guilloché MOP.
Starting with the Gemstone versions, they each feature a natural stone dial that is cut so thin as to be translucent, allowing light to pass through them. Typically, translucent dials are used in solar-powered watches to allow light into the watch to power the battery but here the purpose is actually reversed, and they are translucent in order to let light out of the watch. That’s because beneath the stone is a layer of Swiss Super-LumiNova, adding luminescence to the entire disk of the dial in low light conditions.
There are three Gemstone variants: Green Jade, Purple Jade and Yellow Mellite. The green and purple are delicate pastel shades while the yellow is particularly intense, reminding me of a buttercup flower or a runny egg yolk. Adding detail to each display, they have crosshair style markings creating a sector style display with Arabic numerals at 12 and 6 o’clock, balanced by dot markers at 3 and 9. It takes what could easily be a dress watch design and changes it into more of a field watch. Though to actually be called a field watch it would need at least 100m water resistance instead of the 50m it has.
The second variant is the Alcadus Quantra Guilloché MOP. If you have been wondering, MOP stands for mother-of-pearl because that’s what the dial is made from. It’s very unusual to see a textured mother-of-pearl dial especially one as intricate as a full guilloché design radiating from an off-centre subdial. In order to produce this pattern with precision, Alcadus use the modern version of guilloché that makes use of a CNC machine instead of traditional lathes and engines. Doing so also has the benefit of keeping the watch more accessible for pricing.
For colour, there are two options here – Iris and Graphite – but we have only been hands-on with the Iris edition. It’s the lighter of the two with a more typical iridescence as expected of mother-of-pearl. The Graphite edition is darker and is predominantly a dark, stormy blue/grey colour instead of the multi-hued rainbow of the Iris.
Because of the presence of the small seconds subdial on the Guilloché MOP edition compared to the Gemstone, the movements inside are technically different but they use the same base and share the same specs. They are the Hangzhou 5100A for the small seconds and 5015A for the centre seconds. Each features a micro-rotor to help keep the movement as thin as possible while revealing more of the watches’ inner workings through the exhibition caseback. They also have a 42-hour power reserve and have been regulated to +/- 7 seconds per day accuracy – that’s a huge improvement over the standard +/- 20 seconds it achieves as standard.
While the Kickstarter pre-order period has closed, they will also be made available as a permanent collection at SGD S$1,160 (approx. £675). The first wave of deliveries is expected in October 2026. A little late to be the watch of the summer in 2026, but perfect for when the spring rolls around in 2027.
Price and Specs:
More details at Alcadus.
