Horological Meandering

Hold your (Sea-)horse: this early to mid 1960ies RADO Captain Cook has probably the nicest case back I've seen on vintage so far.

In 1962 RADO joined the crowds in producing a divers watch. The Captain Cook is said to have been produced between 1962 and 1968 in a quantity of about 8000 pieces. It was supposed to be prone to 220m under water but we all know today, that a large number of these early "divers" watches will have drowned at some point. The crown is a simple "push in and out", no screw down mechanism.

The specs: a cute 36mm diameter, reference 11683 powered by an automatic AS (Schild) 1701 with a gold plated rotor and 30 jewels. Even though the diameter of the case is so relatively small, the lugs are 19mm wide. Rado produced some variations: with- and without "R" on the crown, no date-loupe and some with date-loupe, "Swiss" and "Swiss Made" on the dial below 6 o'clock, broad arrow hour hand (like this one) but also broad arrow minutes hand.

The aestetics: it ticks many boxes: glossy brownish dial, funky and bold hands, convex bezel and an opulently engraved case back. And the "kissing seahorses" are not only on the case-back but also on the bracelet and on the box.

The case of this latest addition to my collection is unpolished and sharp and all parts seem to be still original. The lume glows nicely and evenly on both, the dial and the hands. The configuration suggests this one to be an early production version.

Oh, and Rado presented very nice re-editions of the Captain Cook during 2017 Basel World.

Cheers, HSTE