RADO
Founded in Lengnau in 1917 by three brothers as Schlup & Co., the company adopted the Rado name — wheel, in Esperanto — in 1957 with the Golden Horse. Part of the Swatch Group, the world’s largest watch group, Rado has built its identity on a single material obsession: watches that resist scratching, from the DiaStar of 1962 to the high-tech ceramic introduced with the DiaStar Ceramica in 1994.
A company that decided to solve one problem
Most watch brands are defined by a shape, a complication or a founder. Rado is defined by a material question: how do you make a watch that does not scratch?
The company began in Lengnau, Switzerland, in 1917, founded by three brothers as Schlup & Co. The Rado name itself only appeared in 1957, with the Golden Horse — the word means wheel in Esperanto, an unusually internationalist choice for a Swiss firm of that era, and a clue to how the brand saw its market.
Then came 1962, and two watches that still define the range. The DiaStar was presented as a scratch-resistant watch, which set the direction for everything after it. The Captain Cook, a diver named after the British explorer, was launched the same year and is now the reference that brings younger collectors to the brand.
Ceramic, and why it mattered
The material logic reached its conclusion in 1994 with the DiaStar Ceramica and the arrival of high-tech ceramic.
Ceramic is harder than steel, lighter on the wrist, hypoallergenic and holds colour without plating. Rado committed to it before it was fashionable, and spent thirty years learning to machine, colour and finish it. The result is that when other houses launched ceramic pieces, Rado already had the industrial answer — which is why the brand is usually described, accurately, as the master of materials rather than the master of complications.