Hands On With The ​​Charming Alcadus Dromo Diver

As far as dive watches go many can be regarded as good, some great, but few push ahead of the crowd out as objectively notable. Once the dive watch threshold has been reached—which usually includes 200-300 meters of water resistance, a rotating bezel, screw down crown and a good helping of lume—the options for standing out start to get a little restricted. A few push ahead on the functionality side with excessive water resistance and Helium Escape valves, locking bezels, oil-filling or oversized minute hands designed to further publicize their fit-for-purpose credentials. On the other side sit the watches which tick the dive-watch boxes, and then aim to differentiate themselves on appearance – either taking cues from historic watches or genres, or even from the leaders in the modern day dive watch field. With the Dromo diver, Alcadus have opted for perhaps the simplest option of all: a wide range of colors.

Of course, it would be unfair to say that color is the only visually strong aspect of the Dromo, but it’s true that it is a major feature in Alcadus’ first dive collection. With sunburst blue, green and salmon dials available alongside black, white and bold yellow, there’s surely a dial or two for everyone, and I’ve had some time to check out quite a few of them.

Dials aside the Dromo is a reasonably restrained, even dressy, driver. The case measures 39mm at its widest, with lug to lug length proportionate to that at under 46mm. The thickness is the only measurement that doesn’t quite fit into the ‘modest’ category, but a significant part of that is made up by the very tall box sapphire crystal. Indeed the vertical brushed midcase contributes only 5mm to the total height of 12.7mm. From the side profile I also like the way the polished chamfers of the lugs flow into the lower part of the bezel edge. This polished area, with matching area at the top of the bezel edge, obviously reduces the amount of grip available for operating the 120 click bezel. This choice of aesthetics over function has negligible effect as I sit here at my desk playing with the watches, but may well have a greater impact when water reduces friction further.

The slender lugs, combined with 20mm lug width, lend themselves to many options other than the bracelet that the Dromo comes fitted with. A rich leather enhances the dressy aspects of the case, while a nato or single pass strap enhance the toolish appeal of a smaller dive watch. On the latter, the case thickness is even more apparent. The bracelet itself is perhaps a slight let down on comparison to the case. The short links provide fairly good articulation and comfort, though due to the flatness of each link they do each reflect the light at different angles.

Despite being fully brushed the disparate reflections highlight the fact the bracelet is a combination of 20+ surfaces rather than a flowing and unified piece of steel. Alcadus plan to upgrade the clasp on the final model, and although there’s nothing inherently wrong with the one on the prototypes in front of me, an upgraded push button or flip-lock clasp would feel like a better match the watch as a whole.

And so to the dials. The only differentiator between each variant is the color. All are date-less. All have dark brushed stainless steel hand, with each second hand tip painted blue. All have the same applied indices filled with SuperLuminova. The same Superluminova is also generously applied to the bezel markings and to the signed crown. Despite the uniformity, the selection of colour makes a marked difference to the tone of the watch. The yellow is, as you might expect, bold and fun. The salmon is perhaps slightly less saturated than many salmon dials seen recently, and along with the white dial are at the dressier end of the spectrum. The sunburst blue is another muted tone and matched by a blue sapphire bezel insert.

All dial colors are surrounded by a white chapter ring which appears either almost imperceptible or overblown due to the distortion from the huge box crystal. This distortion also extends to the indices as you’ll note from some of the photos. For the majority of the dial though, readability is good thanks to 5 layers of anti-reflective coating.

Inside the Dromo is the Miyota 9039 automatic movement, and it’s nice to have a date-free movement to match the date-free dial above. Although it ticks a lot of boxes for a solid “every-day” dive watch, does it have enough to set it apart from the crowd? I guess that depends on whether you find you like the heavy distortion of a box sapphire, or if you find perfect dial colour. The Dromo is due to launch on Kickstarter early next year with prices starting at around $350. Alcadus.