If one were to introduce Rado in a veritable game of Horological First Word, I’m certain the response would be either ‘ceramic’ or ‘Master of Materials’. Over the past few decades, the brand has heavily invested in high-tech ceramic and its colour explorations, along with material innovation that has included everything from plasma high-tech ceramic and silicon nitride ceramic to hardened titanium, high-tech diamond, and Ceramos. However, just as diverse are its artistic collaborations, which lend themselves to another core brand ethos – ‘Design you can feel’.
For several years now, Rado has been joining hands with art and design luminaries who have used its watches as a canvas to express themselves and create striking timepieces – in fact, to date the brand has been involved in over 30 collaborations. For eg, in 2019, Rado launched a global creative project for its True Square collection, wherein the Tokyo-based design studio YOY, the Italian-Dutch Studio Formafontasma, British industrial designer Tej Chauhan, and Indian artists Thukral and Tagra interpreted it based on their oeuvre. Rado has also partnered twice with award-winning Austrian fashion designer Marina Hoermanseder and Japanese fashion designer Kunihiko Morinaga to build unique pieces, and in 2022, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its Diastar line, joined hands with Swiss-Argentinian product designer Alfredo Häberli to create a special edition.
The latest watch to join this long and distinctive list of collaborations is the Rado Diastar Original x Tej Chauhan. This is Chauhan’s second stint with Rado, and it is not difficult to see synergies between the two. Chauhan, winner of awards such as the Red Dot, Grand Prix du Design Gold, Cannes Lions, and more, is known for his Emotive Industrial Design philosophy where shape, colour and material – a trifecta that Rado has expertise in - are used strategically to create objects that bring joy. In 2020, Rado and Chauhan developed (as part of the aforementioned global project) the True Square X Tej Chauhan, a matte yellow, square, high-tech ceramic watch with a monobloc case created via injection moulding, and whose matte black dial featured a graphic composition of concentric circles and lines. Now, it is the Diastar that Chauhan lends his inimitable touch to.
What is the Diastar?
Before we get into the new watch, a bit of context about the Diastar. Since 1917, Rado has been at the forefront of developing innovative materials and in 1962 introduced Hardmetal to the watch world. An alloy of tungsten carbide, Hardmetal was completely scratchproof. At the same time, Rado also developed sapphire crystal, proclaiming is as almost as hard and durable as diamond - this was at a time when most dials were covered with plastic or hesalite and scratched quite easily. Both the Hardmetal case and a sapphire crystal came together in a new watch called the Diastar 1. Three years in the making, it launched in 1962.
Diastar 1 was an unusually shaped watch with an oval bezel. The unique shape arose from technical constraints, as machining Hardmetal was an incredibly difficult task. In fact, the watch landed its signature oval shape almost by chance, and was retained by Rado because the brand saw its allure. The hands were baton-shaped, and ‘Diastar’ appeared at 6 o’clock. The sapphire crystal was facetted and dodecaognal, and the bezel covered the fastening of the bracelet. Carrying four patents, it gave consumers three guarantees: Technical, waterproofness (220 metres) and scratchproof.
Over the decades, several iterations of the watch have been created, including a day-date, a yellow gold version, and even a quartz LED one. However, in 2022, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Diastar 1, the brand released four watches that marked the milestone. These were the Diastar Originals, and included the Diastar Original 60-Year Anniversary Edition created by Alfredo Häberli. Now, over two years later, the Diastar Original once again comes into the spotlight as a Tej Chauhan special edition.
Rado Diastar Original X Tej Chauhan
The Rado Diastar Original X Tej Chauhan retains the iconic look of the Diastar, while merging it with Chauhan’s design philosophy. At 38mm wide, 45mm in length, and 11.7mm in height, and given its bezel, understandably the watch wears large on the wrist. The signature oval bezel in CeramosTM, the brand’s high-tech mixture of ceramic and metal alloy, dons a striking polished yellow gold coloured PVD coating, which also covers the stainless steel middle part. The matte black dial, much like Chauhan’s first outing for Rado, is graphical, with an elongated minute track and applied indexes blue and silver. The quarter between 9 and 12, referred internally as ‘Party Time Indexes’, is in blue to mark a time period where things happen – either the productive part of the day, or a time set aside to unwind in the evenings. Chauhan has done the elements of day-date window in colour and his own typography, which brings a certain lightness to the dial. There is also an alternate disc setting that displays the date in white. The skeletonised central hour and minute hands are treated with white Super-LumiNova®, and the seconds hand is in neon yellow. The brand’s moving anchor symbol sits at 12, and the dial is topped with a radial faceted sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating inside.
“I love the Diastar. It's a classic Rado icon, so it was a privilege to be able to offer my own version of it,” says Chauhan. “Colour plays a key role in my work, so this was a great place to start from. But actually every single element of the Diastar, apart from the case, has been designed from scratch. My objective was to deliver something totally fresh and unexpected, whilst at the same time trying to avoid it being too polarising. The gold PVD has been combined with other colours, for example, to make it feel less classic and more contemporary. The graphics, the colours, the clear indexes, the strap – all new interpretations never lose sight of one thing - that this is a precision instrument for telling the time.”
An integral part of Chauhan’s interpretation is the strap. The grey pillow-shaped rubber strap is a direct testament to his Emotive Industrial Design philosophy, and is secured by a polished dark grey PVD coated stainless steel extendable folding clasp, whose yellow gold-coloured cover and pushers are also designed by Chauhan – it is engraved with the words ‘Diastar Original x Tej Chauhan’. The underside of the strap features the phrases ‘The time is now’, and ‘TC Souvenirs of The Near Future©’. Chauhan says that it was important to him that the emotive aspects were well balanced with the function elements. “The whole composition is designed as an invitation to the main event – the telling of time. For eg, the strap is designed to make you want to squeeze the rubber pillows, and therefore pick the watch up. The colours on the day/date are small accents designed only to bring some cheer. Every single element has been created to encourage an engagement.”
The watch is powered by the Rado Calibre R764 automatic, with an 80-hour power reserve. The movement has an antimagnetic NivachronTM hairspring that is also resistant to temperature fluctuations, and has superlative shock resistance. Part of the movement is visible via a sapphire crystal window in the polished dark grey PVD-coated stainless steel caseback. The caseback is also engraved with ‘SPECIAL EDITION TEJ CHAUHAN’. The watch is water resistant to 100 metres.
Nearly 18 months in the making, the new watch comes fast on the heels of three Diastar references with colourful dials that were launched just last month. Chauhan confesses that the most challenging part of the project was one of the initial ideas he had to develop new colours for the CeramosTM, “but this would prove too costly in terms of time and we would have missed some schedules.” The gold that has eventually been used gives the watch an undeniably bold, almost futuristic appeal that lovers of extraordinary design will enjoy. Add to that the fact that the CeramosTM will ensure that the lustre never fades.
For Rado CEO Adrian Bosshard, the collaboration with Chauhan opens up new avenues of design within the Diastar range. “Tej is coming from a different field and is therefore not influenced by existing design codes within the watch industry. Rado’s heritage dates back to 1917 and has earned the reputation as Master of Materials and combines the most modern watchmaking technology with high-tech material innovation. No other brand possesses the knowledge and expertise in the manufacturing of high-tech ceramic like Rado. His design signature is inspired by a futuristic vision of popular culture that has resulted in a truly spectacular timepiece. All of us at Rado love his passion, dedication and attention to detail and most importantly his love for the Rado brand.”
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