Rado - Cultivating Core Business
WORLDTEMPUS - 25 February 2011
Swiss watchmaker Rado is not a fortune teller with regard to the current situation in the Middle East and Northern Africa: the name of pre-Basel event in Turkey's commercial capital this month - Revolution - was pure coincidence. Despite this, the eyes of the press in attendance were neither solely on the new True ThinLine nor on the future relaunch of the 1962 DiaStar. The press's eyes were also directed to Rado's new chief, former Hamilton CEO Matthias Breschan, who joined the company last month.
Breschan, an Austrian national, has taken over Rado's top spot from Roland Streule, who decided to retire after 22 years in the president's seat of this Swatch Group-owned brand.
"Rado has a solid base, which gives us the opportunity to cultivate our ceramic timepieces, both in terms of material and design," Breschan told Worldtempus in Istanbul, a city with a foot both in Europe and in Asia. The location was chosen perhaps to indicate this significant element of Rado: its products are made in Europe, though they are bestsellers in both Asia and the Middle East, with sales numbers so impressive there that Rado ranks among the Top 15 Swiss watch brands.
"Rado is all about design, offering state-of-the-art, high-tech materials and exceptional long-lasting quality ? in fact long-lasting is one of our mantras. Our scratchproof watches look the same in ten years, which adds genuine client loyalty to our brand," Breschan claimed when asked to describe the products manufactured at his new place of business in Lengnau.
New Case Study Material
During the interview, Breschan was wearing a prototype of a DiaStar crafted in CeraMos. CeraMos differs a bit from CeraMet ? which is a mixed metal that Rado introduced in 1993; other watch brandy are only now beginning to use it, such as Audemars Piguet on its recently released Jarno Trulli and Pride of Mexico Offshore models. It is not only very resistant to scratches due to the ceramic material it contains, it also makes it possible to produce a steel-like high polish and allows watch cases to have very sharp edges and facets.
"CeraMos is a case study material," Yumi Pham, head of Rado's international PR and events said. "It is a way of proving our openness toward innovative materials as well as cultivating our DNA," she continued. "The advantage of the high-gloss finish makes it a perfect material to use in relaunching the DiaStar next year." The DiaStar was the first scratchproof watch; Rado introduced in 1962 as the world's first ? a revolutionary model of its time.
World's Thinnest Ceramic Watch
Another world's first presented in Istanbul was the True ThinLine, which is so thin it is the world's thinnest high-tech ceramic watch. Already highly regarded for its form, function and contemporary design, the Rado True collection is set to revolutionize the world with this new line. It comes in a simple and elegant new model featuring gold-colored hour markers and as a Jubile version set with diamonds. Not only the case is made of high-tech ceramics ensuring wearing comfort as well as an almost infinite finish due to the scratchproof material, but also the buckle on the integrated rubber strap.
Incredible Changes
Also introducing an XXL chronograph version of the highly successful r5.5 by British designer Jasper Morrison, Rado is prepared to meet journalists and buyers from around the world when BaselWorld opens its doors on March 23. According to Breschan, Rado is ready to "make incredible changes in the next two and three years."
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