The first Rado Captain Cook, a diver’s watch named after British explorer James Cook, came into existence in the early 60s, and caused substantial buzz with its design, which included a concave inward-sloping dive bezel, and a bracelet that first saw the appearance of the ‘beads of rice’ pattern. Around the same time, in 1962 to be precise, the brand, in wanting to capitalise on the trend of international travel launched a world timer watch, the Captain Cook Over-Pole, sported a turning bezel with the key cities of the world. This year, on the 60th anniversary of the watch, Rado has revisited that timepiece to create the new Rado Captain Cook Over-Pole Limited Edition, a vintage style watch that echoes several details of the original classic. Alongside that, six new Rado Captain Cook High-Tech Ceramic Diver watches have also been unveiled.

Rado Captain Cook Over-Pole Limited Edition

Launching its limited edition Captain Cook Over-Pole (Ref. R32116158), the new stainless steel watch comes in the same 37mm size of the original, along with other details like an inward-sloping bi-directional bezel with a high tech ceramic insert that featured laser-engraved city names; the classic red date-numeral at 3 o'clock; and the box-shaped glass, this time with anti-reflective coating on both sides that help maintain the vintage feel of the watch. Just like the original, this new model also gets a purple anchor at 12 o'clock.

Upgrades come via the gradient dial, silver at the centre moving towards black at the edges. The hourmakers are rhodium coloured applied indexes, with white Super-LumiNova® dots on 24-hour scale, silver-coloured ‘Worldtimer. Unlike most worldtimers, this one accounts for Mumbai as one of the cities, taking into consideration the half-hour difference. The hands feature white Super-LumiNova® with light green luminescence, on minute and hour hand. The watch is powered by Calibre R862, equipped with a NivachronTM antimagnetic hairspring, and producing 80 hours of power reserve. The watch is water resistant to 100 metres. Turning the watch reveals the transparent caseback with the individual number of the watch engraved; the watch will be produced to 1962 pieces. Completing it is a vintage leather strap with a stainless-steel pin buckle, also provided is an an additional stainless-steel rice grain bracelet with a stainless-steel triple-fold clasp.

Rado Captain Cook High-Tech Ceramic Diver

 

The new 43mm Captain Cook High-Tech Ceramic Diver, launched in six unique variants in high-tech ceramic, gets ISO 6425 certification, a first from Rado, thus, certifying it as a diver's watch. The bezel comes with engraved numerals, eight bar-shaped hour markers, triangular bar hour markers for 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock, and a red date window at 3 o'clock. The watch gets rhodium coloured hands with white Super-LumiNova for hour, minutes and seconds hands.

Turning the watch over reveals the circular-brushed titanium press-fit caseback with two seahorses, replicating the details from the 1960s model. The watch is powered by calibre R763 delivering 8- hours of power reserve. This larger 43mm ceramic case, monobloc construction watch comes with 300 metres of water resistance with scratch-resistant sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides.

Ref. R32129152 gets a black dial, black bezel, and black ceramic bracelet with titanium 3-fold clasp with black high-tech ceramic openers while Ref. R32129158 comes with a matte black rubber strap with stainless steel extendable folding clasp. Ref. R32144102 gets a sunray grey dial and Ref. R32144202 comes with a blue, lacquered and polished dial, both the watches are completed on a polished plasma high-tech ceramic bracelet with titanium 3-fold clasp with CeramosTM openers, ceramic bezel, and ceramic case.

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The last two models Ref. R32130312 get a matte olive high-tech ceramic case, and a high-tech ceramic bezel, dial, high-tech ceramic links bracelet with titanium 3-fold clasp, all in the same colour. Ref. R32130318 is completed on a matet olive green rubber strap with stainless steel extendable folding clasp.

Images: Courtesy Rado