"No love" for Rado wristwatches?

I mostly think of them for their vintage watches. I also think their modern Captain Cook if pretty popular.

Sorry....a long post. But it's not short to answer the problems of Rado.

First of all I'm a sucker for Rado.

There are things to praise and some to criticize.

I've also bought the True Square, the not-open-heart green dial. But somehow I do regret not to buy that.

Rado is one of the very few brands who do design their watches from scratch. You will never see a homage or any major influences of other icons. Design is one of the most expensive departments of a watch brand. It is also very risky. Because mostly you will not match with the taste of the wider market. Most people are looking for affordable alternatives of the known Icons. Soto design something new needs money and courage.

But Rado really does it's own thing. To be honest, many of their models do look horrible. Like from an old catalouge of the early 1990s. But not in a good way. But I do honor their courage :-) .

But then...design, after desgin...Rado brings some cool watches out which are genius in design, especially if you consider their history and efforts in materials.

The Diastar, True, True Square and the Reissue of the Captain Cook and Golden Horse.

So where are the problems?

The problems are, that Rado still has too many ugly models in their product line. It is ok if some are boring. Many other brands have boring models beside their models. But Rado has some very unpopular designs and too big in sizes.

Too big sizes are mostly considered with cheap watches.

It's also their marketing. This shouldn't be misunderstood as racist. But Rado is often introduced as "The Rolex of India and Pakistan", due to its popularity in south asia. It's a good acheivement. But if you promote a brand like that, the potential customers think the other way around: "Why are you not popular in Switzerland and Europe, the home of watches? Is there are problem?".

Do make a product world wide popular you always need to gain popularity at their home markets. It doesn't care what kind of product.

That was a problem also by being a part of the Swatch Group. Swatch Group Head Office decided for some brands, to conenctrate on some certain markets. Mido Latin America, Rado South Asia, Certina Europe.

There were not much budget and oportunities to promote in Europe and North America.

Therefore many designs represented more the taste of South Asian than the rest of the world.

Another Swatch Group Probem was the problem with the movements and the pricing of the watches.

The official retail prices are too high. In my opinion on some models up too 40% to what people would be willing to pay for.

Some models are over 5K, as like the Captain Cook high tech ceramic open heart. And if you reach such price limits you should able to have a very strong Brand image, particularly sought-after technical details or designs....but not Movements that are used in wacthes that costs 1/5 of those.

Most of Rado watches do use the Powermatic 80. Which is to seperate in

C07.111 (contains Plastic parts)

C07.611 (all steel with Nivachron Hairspring)

C07.811 (all steel with Silicium Hairspring)

Rado uses the 611 versions. Which are ok...but actually also easy to find in 900 Euro watches of the Swatch Group as like Certina DS Action Diver.

Don't get me wrong. It's a great movement, easy to handle, cheap to service. And Rado really take all out of the movement, but regulating them on 5 positions, gaving them a stronger shock restitance and making them highly attractive looking at the open heart models (the none open models movements are plain). But if you are asking several thousands of Euros/Dollars, you need to justify it. That's why Rado always try to hide their movement names.

As I said I like some of their watches, but the prices are not realistic. For example the True Square costs officially 2,650 Euro. I bought it one years ago for 1,850 a a big online retailer (not ebay or something). Today it even costs less for 1,700 Euro ....but my green one. The blue dial costs 1,400.

So almost half price than official. And if the prices even shrink, that hurts after paying more before.

Then there is also the Point with the Captain Cook line.

Due to its (unexpected) pupularity in Europe and North America, Rado brought one Special Edition after another out. Beside of their now huge diverse Captain Cook product line. Captain Cook in different colors. Captain cook in Bronze, Captain Cook Chronograph, Captian Cook High Tech Ceramic, Captain Cook open heart. Captain Cook full gold pvd. Captain Cook two tone. Captain Cook World Timer, Captain Cook 37mm....and so on.

It looks helpless... as if like Rado has nothing else to survive then with the Captain Cook line.

The problem is also rooted in their wild designs of the other models. If you always change your designs and alway doing experiments instead of trying to design something the people do want, the customers do lose the interest and trust into their products. Customers like and look for consistency.

That's why all their popular products are reissues. Their designs are timeless but by the taste of the customers.

Rado really needs to clean up their product lines. It's great to try out new designs, but they need a clear product strategy. Yet it is not clear.

With all that said, I will propably buy soon a Rado Captain Cook two tone 😉

Very detailed and provides some insight I was unaware of. The detail about being BIG in South Asia is news to me... I learned something new 😅

They are big in India

For the one pictured, Cartier is calling and wants its design back…..

Its really not similar in any way to Cartier Santos skeleton. Yes they have similar shapes and skeleton design.

All good stuff and I am a fan especially of their vintage watches but - to add to your extensive and informative comments - I would add that navigating their vintage watches is tricky because of the fakes. It makes it really hard to buy them without handling them notwithstanding “buy the seller, etc., etc.”