Rado True - Comfortable ceramic

This watch is part of a pair my wife and I bought as a mutual anniversary present. I normally wouldn’t have thought about Rado or a watch with diamonds, but this has become a favorite. Why? Comfort and the Rado Hyperchrome look, which I’ve come to like.

I find the dial attractive because of the overall dark look, without being black. The hands and minute markers seem to float on their own. The date  window has no outline, so doesn’t draw attention from the look. The hands are thin, but the lume is  actually useful, because of the contrast with the dark dial. This dial looks very legible in low light, which surprised me. The indices are little diamond chips which make them visible also in low light from reflections.

The bezel and case are interesting.  I’m guessing the Hyperchrome titanium ceramic is a love it or hate it material.  It is very smooth and comfortable, with nice details and a very deep metallic grey, but an overall soft feel. It’s thin for an automatic, only 10.4 mm. The integration with the bracelet is excellent and as the bracelet is from the same material, it also has a great feel. The bracelet has a strong bifold clasp, so I don’t think this is one where you’d ever want to change the band, but the lugs are drilled, just in case!  The sapphire crystal is anti-reflective which helps the ‘dark’ look. The small trademark floating anchor on the dial and the shadow engraved anchor on the crown are nice touches. There are no minute markers, and they’d detract from the look, but this does make setting less precise. The caseback has a solid flat finish which I think contributes to the comfort of the watch and the 50m water resistance. This Rado has an ETA 763 movement with a good power reserve - claimed to be 80 hours and definitely at least 72 in my hands. Accuracy is about -5-10 seconds/day for me, so I ‘touch up’ the time each time I wear it. The case and bracelet show fine scratches on close inspection, but don’t detract from the look. Overall, this is a lot of watch for about $1.5-2k.

BUT, this is not a watch for everyone, at least in the US. I bought the watch at an AD, who is now out of business. There aren’t a lot of AD in the US, and we’ve found most dealers not willing to touch Rados. We’ve had her watch and mine in for servicing at the central Rado service facility, which is responsive and fairly quick. I wonder if Swatch, which owns Rado, doesn’t see the US as a core market. Tissot, Hamilton and Longines are all in a similar price group and seem to have a stronger US presence.