Marcus Hanke
[PuristSPro Moderator]
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PuristSPro report: Rado at Baselworld 2014
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Rado novelties at Basel 2014
reported by Marcus Hanke
reported by Marcus Hanke
Rado is traditionally concentrating more on high technology case materials than on movement innovations. However, a combination of these two was shown last year for the first time, with the Esenza Touch, a watch which could be set to the correct time completely by touching and swiping the ceramic material of its case.
This year, the series is expanded, at first with the Fibonacci series for the ladies. Reader of the “Da Vinci Code” will certainly Fibonacci, the medieval mathematician, or better: the Fibonacci sequence. Following this unique series of numbers, Rado set the 534 gemstones onto the dials of the Esenza Touch.
There are four different variants, with blue and orange sapphires, green emeralds and white diamonds. Depending on the direction of light hitting the dials, the colours change, causing a very pleasant impression.
The difficulty behind this design is that diamonds cannot be set into ceramic material directly, since this is too brittle. Consequently, after laser drilling the appropriate holes into the ceramic, these are filled with an alloy of 85% pure platinum, which is then used to give hold to the diamonds.
A consequential development of the ceramic touch technology is its integration into a men’s watch, especially into a watch featuring a two time zones display.
The HyperChrome Ceramic Touch Dual Timer offers not only the independent setting of both time zones, also for areas where the time differs by less than a full hour from its neighbouring time zones, but also the easy swap between the times indicated: Thus, it is easy to switch the main display from home time to destination time and backwards again. A short video demonstrates this better than a written description:
Several variants are available, in both flat and glossy finish. The former might be especially interesting, since it is not a magnet for fingerprints, like it is the mirror-shining surface of the black version.
A new chronograph is the HyperChrome automatic chronograph with the plasma treated ceramic case. Unlike the black or white high-tech ceramics case, this specially high-temperature gas-treated material adopts the grey sheen of metal, or more even like haematite. The chronograph is equipped with the ETA 2894 modular movement.
Finally, the Rado Diamaster Skeleton is a very attractive representative of the growing group of watches with pseudo-skeletonized movements. I say pseudo, because traditional skeletonizing involves the removal of substance from a movement by hand, and it is the skill and experience of the master to determine where and how much of the material can be removed without risking the movement’s stability.
Most of the modern skeleton watches achieve similar effect by omitting a conventional dial, opening the sight on a movement that is produced as skeletonized movement already from the beginning, as programmed into the CNC. This reflects the abilities of the engineers, but not traditional craft. the result, however, can be similarly stunning when housed in a ceramic case and when the bridges of the movement received a black metal finish like it is the case in the Diamaster Skeleton.
Copyright April 2014 - Marcus Hanke & PuristSPro.com - all rights reserved
Comments, suggestions, and corrections to this article are welcome.
PuristSPro report: Rado at Baselworld 2014
ii Rado novelties at Basel 2014 reported by Marcus Hanke Rado is traditionally concentrating more on high technology case materials than on movement innovations. However, a combination of these two was shown last year for the first time, with the Esenza T...
HyperChrome Ceramic Touch Dual Timer
Long Name but a very cool easy to use dual time function, thanks for sharing. S
Wow love the time changing feature of the HyperChrome Ceramic Touch Dual Timer
Thanks for the video too! - AT
