Ji Chang-wook Creates His Own Rado True Square

The Finer Points

• Limited to 987 pieces worldwide, the True Square Open Heart Limited edition with Ji Chang-wook is a numbered collaboration between RADO and its Global Brand Ambassador.
• Matt black high-tech ceramic forms the case, giving the watch RADO‘s characteristically lightweight, scratch-resistant construction.
• Twelve rubies are set on the dial as Ji Chang-wook’s birthstone, chosen for their meaning as a symbol of good luck and protection.
• The open-heart display brings a direct view of the movement’s architecture, connecting the visual design to the watch’s mechanical core.
• The edition was developed through a shared creative process between Ji Chang-wook and RADO, making the material and design choices personally significant.

A Collaboration Rooted in Material and Meaning

RADO, the Lengnau-based Swiss watch brand long associated with pioneering hard material cases, has channelled that expertise into one of its most personal limited editions to date. The True Square Open Heart Limited edition with Ji Chang-wook grew from a genuine dialogue between the brand and its Global Brand Ambassador, centred on design, materials, and the kind of personal significance that distinguishes a collected piece from a catalogue product. The outcome is a watch that carries specific meaning for the person who helped shape it.

Ji Chang-wook, the South Korean actor and RADO Global Brand Ambassador, brought his own creative priorities to the brief. Rather than a superficial co-branding exercise, the collaboration involved deliberate choices about colour, material, and symbolism. The matt black high-tech ceramic case, a material that RADO has refined across many of its most respected references, provides the structural foundation. Its matte surface absorbs light differently from a polished finish, giving the watch a restrained, almost architectural presence on the wrist.

For collectors in the GCC who follow both South Korean popular culture and precision Swiss watchmaking, this edition occupies an interesting space. RADO has a consistent retail presence across the region, and limited ambassador editions of this kind tend to generate genuine collector interest at launch. The combination of a strict worldwide production cap and a design narrative grounded in personal symbolism gives the piece a clear identity beyond its specification sheet. Visit the official RADO page for Ji Chang-wook to explore the full campaign and edition details.

Twelve Rubies and the Open Heart Display

The twelve rubies set into the dial are the detail that most directly connects the watch to Ji Chang-wook himself. As his birthstone, the ruby carries personal resonance, but within the design they also function as symbols of good luck and protection, attributes that give the stones a meaning beyond decoration. Set against the matt black ceramic, the deep red of the rubies creates a visual contrast that is precise and considered rather than ornamental for its own sake.

The open-heart complication places a window into the movement’s beating centre directly on the dial, and within the True Square collection this aperture is both a technical statement and a design feature. The True Square Skeleton variant demonstrates how far RADO has taken openworked construction within this square-case family, and the Open Heart edition sits alongside it as a more focused, less architecturally complex expression of the same idea. Here, the movement visibility is framed rather than comprehensive, letting the ruby detail and the high-tech ceramic work as the primary visual elements.

For a watch built around personal symbolism, the open heart display carries an additional layer of intent: the visibility of the movement’s heartbeat becomes part of the narrative around luck, protection, and something kept close. Whether or not that reading was part of the original brief, it coheres with the edition’s overall approach to combining mechanical watchmaking with personal meaning.

High-Tech Ceramic and the 987-Piece Limit

RADO’s use of high-tech ceramic is one of the defining characteristics of the brand’s modern identity. The material is notably harder than steel, resistant to everyday scratching, and substantially lighter on the wrist, all properties that make it practical as well as distinctive. In matt black, it takes on a different character from the polished ceramic seen on other RADO references, pulling the True Square Open Heart Ji Chang-wook edition toward a more subdued, contemporary register. For a broader sense of how RADO applies this material across different case designs, the high-tech ceramic Captain Cook Chronograph illustrates the material’s versatility in a sport-oriented context.

The production ceiling of 987 pieces worldwide is specific enough to feel deliberate rather than arbitrary, and it places the edition firmly within the territory of pieces that require a decision at point of purchase. For buyers in Dubai, Riyadh, or Doha who follow limited runs from Swiss brands, 987 is a number small enough to create genuine urgency without reducing the edition to a purely rarefied object. RADO’s distribution network across the GCC means that regional availability is a realistic expectation, though prospective buyers would be advised to confirm stock directly with authorised retailers.

Why It Matters

The True Square Open Heart Limited edition with Ji Chang-wook demonstrates that ambassador collaborations can produce watches with a genuine design rationale, not just a name on a dial. For GCC collectors who value both the material credentials of Swiss high-tech ceramic and the cultural weight of a globally recognised ambassador, this 987-piece edition offers a clear, well-grounded reason to act. The combination of RADO’s material expertise and a personally meaningful design brief makes it one of the more considered limited releases in the brand’s recent catalogue.

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