Horological Meandering

Retro Rado

 

My newest daily wearer, a Rado Golden Horse Chronometer. 

I had the chance to pick up this re-edition of the Golden Horse, a Rado model first introduced in 1958, and am enjoying it greatly.

At 35.2mm in diameter it is the smallest watch I own, but it has great presence on the wrist.

The very high indexes give the dial much depth and the contrast between the brushed silver dial and the red gold plated indexes and hands makes face very lively. 

The 35.2mm diameter case is stainless steel 316L with a red gold plated screw down crown.

A typical Rado feature of the time was the Rado logo, the anchor, freely pivoting in a red ruby on the dial.

The highly domed haselite glass has the cyclops magnifier for the date window molded on the inner side which leaves the top surface perfectly smooth.

I think the watch will look much better with a different strap.  The black is just too much contrast with steel and red gold.  I am thinking a dark maroon or chestnut band will look much better.  The only thing that disturbs me about this watch is that the clasp delivered is not the same shade of red gold as the crown and on the dial.

I tried to find out from Rado the history of this re-edition of the Golden Horse Chronometer, without much success.  I was unable to learn when they were made exactly, but the movement is an ETA 2824-A2 in chronometer quality.  That means that it has a higher quality hairspring, balance and mainspring than the standard 2824-A2 and is also better regulated in the factory before it heads out to the testing at the COSC.  I did receive a card as a proof of COSC testing, but not the results of the test.  My contact suggested that probably at some time recently they found a quantity of old stock dials in the Rado factory and decided to use them to make these watches, but he couldn't say for sure.

Rado is a watch company that is now a part of the Swatch Group, but has its own history.  Rado grew out of the movement maker Schlup and Co. a company founded in 1917 by 3 brothers in their home town Lengnau in Switzerland.  They were one of the many totally anonmous watchmakers of the period who made the movements that were then branded by the watch sellers.  The 1950s was one of the many consolidation periods for the watchmaking industry.  At that time Schlup and Co. had a new dynamic director, a certain Mr. Luthi, who decided to change the direction of the company and rename it, to Rado.  From around 1957 Rado no longer made movements, but assembled watches using movements from the bigger suppliers of the time such as Schild and cases from their own production.

From the beginning Mr Luthi decided that Rado watches should be automatics and waterproof.  The first series that were a success where the "horse series", the Green Horse, the Golden Horse, the Silver Horse, etc.  These watches were mostly sold on the Asian markets starting around 1958. In the early 1960s the "floating anchor" logo was added to most of the models.  They took the Rado logo, the anchor, and pivoted it in a red synthetic ruby on the dial.  As such it turns with the position of the watch.  From many this garnered distain at the time, just a gimmick, but today it is a distinctive feature of a vintage Rado.

These days Rado is mostly known for the materials used for their cases, extra hard ceramics, diamond layers etc., that make for scratch-proof cases.  The first Rado watch to show this kind of charactoristic was the Diastar, introduced in 1962 and still in production.  It is made with a tungsten steel case.  This watch was a big success and with that Rado started to also work the US American market.

Of the Rado models I have seen the most distinctive is the "Manhattan".  Today we would call it a TV screen watch, square and wider than tall.  The Manhatten was introduced in 1966 as Rado was entering the US market.

In 1968 Rado joined the ASUAG consortium which was the basis for its integration into the Swatch Group today.  The SMH (Swiss Corporation for Microelectronics and Watchmaking Industries Ltd), renamed in 1998 to the Swatch Group, was founded by the merger of the 2 Swiss watchmaking groups ASUAG and SSIH.

The history of Rado since the advent of Swatch Group is up for discussion.  Some could say they are just a brand name for mid-range watches using standard ETA movements.  As with any watch brand whether one likes the watch designs is a matter of taste.

Rado has long been in a close cooperation with Comadur, the producer of ceramic and sapphire parts in Swatch Group, who produce the Rado cases and the level of innovation remains high.  As a producer of mid-range watches there will always be those that look down at them, but Rado produces today distinctive watches that hold their looks unchanged over time.  This brings them their reputation in Germany as the watches of insurance salesmen and "Beamter", civil servants.  People that prize security more than anything else.

Those people can think what they want, I am very happy with this latest acquisition and am enjoying it greatly.
Don

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