I can remember my reaction when I saw the Ophion 786 Vélos back in the days (during the COVID period). I instantly thought: “What a beautiful looking and tasteful watch.” My second thought was: “This is too good to be true, either it will be enormously costly or the waiting time will kill my patience” (or both as it happens very often these days with watches).

Ophion is a young brand. It is from Madrid, Spain and it was founded by the designer / architect Miguel Morales Ribas and his wonderful and exceptionally friendly team. The collection started with the classical Ophion OPH 960, which is followed by the OPH 786 and has now arrived at the OPH 786 Vélos.

The Ophion 786 Vélos looks fabulously designed with both the watch and the movement in harmony. It has a shallow domed sapphire crystal which covers the CNC machine guilloché dial (which is galvanized and made by the German dial specialist CADOR). It gives the watch a classic look even if it is not guillochéd by hand – but this might be a big plus for all people with a smaller budget.

The hands are thermally blued steel hands which feature the new arrow hour hand design. Important note: The watch I am reviewing has (to my taste) the more beautiful “observatory” hour hand, as used for the previous model OPH 786, which gives the watch and the dial design a more conservative look. I like this configuration more than the OPH 786 Vélos with the arrow hand and Miguel changed the hand to my request.

The colour of the hands matches the beautiful CNC sculptured Breguet style blue numerals and the brushed brand ring with the Ophion name and logo dot. The logo dot on the dial at the 6´ position might disturb some people. The outer ring indicates the minutes by a railway minute track – all in a 3-D design.

The case of the watch is reminiscent of the watches made by Urban Jürgensen and the watches of Kari Voutilainen. It is a crazy design and hand polished stainless steel 38,5 mm case (made in cooperation with Voutilainen-Cattin S.A., produced in Germany) with fantastic large size teardrop lugs which are produced separately from the case (like you can see on Voutilainen and Jürgensen watches or – as some of you might remember also very well – on the Chronoswiss Klassik Chronograph).

There are five options available in the original collection (Guilloché dial: salmon, blue, silver; or brushed radial dial: anthracite, blue). Currently, however, there are also numerous limited editions of the watch for various brands and dealers.

The manual wind movement of the Ophion 786 Vélos comes from movement manufacture Horlogère du Vallée de Joux (MHVJ) / Soprod / Technotime (base TT 718, stamped TT-2W). It looks very good and pocket-watch-style with its harmonious and symmetrical designed grey surface (sandblasted, all decorations are machine made).

No rotor covers the movement. What I also like very much is the long power reserve of about five days – this is very practical. Please note that the power comes from two barrels and it takes some time to wind the watch.

What else: The Vélos was among the competing watches in the Petite Aiguille category at the GPHG 2020 and the word Ophion comes from the ancient Greek mythology and means “The Ruler of the World” – why not. Yes or No?

If you flip through the following criteria, you might find the answer to the “Is-the-OPH-Vélos the-Right-Watch-for-me-Question”:
1 You can´t get enough guilloché.
2 You can tolerate some waiting time and online order.
3 You like a splendid teardrop lugs design case.
4 You like Breguet style applied numerals.
5 You like manual wind movements.
6 You like to wear a watch on a leather strap.
7 Your taste is beyond integrated bracelet stainless steel sportive watches.
8 You have a Jürgensen/Voutilainen taste in case design.
9 You are searching for a excellent value for money.