DEPLOYANT – Luxury watch reviews & horological lifestyles – Luxury watch reviews & horological lifestyles
Rado Hyperchrome Captain Cook
Rado releases the HyperChrome Captain Cook collection at Baselworld 2017. A reinterpretation of a Rado watch collection from the 1960s, the new HyperChrome Captain Cook family offers three variants in the collection. Today we will look at the black dial steel version, the closest variant to the original.
The case, dial and hands
Rado HyperChrome Captain Cook with a black sunburst dial, sized at 37.3 mm in diameter.
This collection stands out for its honest homage of design cues both from the brand and also other popular models in the 60s. Namely a case design reminiscent of Blancpain’s fifty fathoms and sized accordingly at 37 mm on the 100 m water resistant model.
The full dimensions of the watch measures in width, 37.3 mm, length 43.1 mm and height 11.1 mm. Fit on a polished stainless steel case, the watch is a good mix of modern materials with vintage styling. It comes with a black high-tech ceramic insert engraved and coated and fixed in a stainless steel turning bezel.
Vintage case design with a box shaped sapphire crystal glass, patina lume, but with Rado’s modern ceramic bezel.
The watch keeps with the dive watch tradition and practicality with a closed case back. The stainless steel case back with 3 sea horses bears some resemblance to the Omega Seamaster emblem.
The most fascinating piece of the case is the box shaped sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides. The double sided anti-reflective and the raised dome shaped crystal makes a beautiful homage to the plexi glass styling of the past. At the same time, the use of sapphire crystal instead of plastic gives the case extra durability despite adding to the higher manufacturing costs of a raised sapphire glass.
The watch is water-resistant to 10 bar (100m) with a special engraving on the case back: LIMITED EDITION ONE OUT OF 1962.
The Rado HyperChrome Captain Cook is fit with a brown vintage leather strap with a stainless steel pin buckle.
For the dial, the Rado uses a black sunbrushed dial, which has an interesting character with color variations when viewed from different angles. The watch is fit with printed indexes and on its periphery a railroad minute marker rehaut.
The hands, it is hard to escape the comparison to the Omega Broad Arrow and Blancpain’s Seconds hand, although some might say it is too narrow minded to associate these design features purely to a single brand. Then again, Rado is like the abovementioned brands, also a Swatch group brand and it is ironically refreshing for the alternate portfolio to occasionally revisit classic designs. After all, the market seems to have a strong fervor for homage dive pieces (think Tudor Black Bay).
The hands and indices use patina colored Super- LumiNova®, which emanates a yellowish tinge. The fonts used on the Rado logo and Captain Cook in italics are not the most congruous, although that remains a matter of preference. A nice touch of red is added to the anchor symbol housing and the date wheel font. Good choice […]
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Article from: DEPLOYANT – Luxury watch reviews & horological lifestyles, by Chester Lau
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