Rado Drops its Vintage Captain Cook in High-Tech Ceramic

It’s fair to say that since its reintroduction in 2017, Rado’s vintage dive watch reissue, the Captain Cook, has been a runaway success.

The design, which turns 60 next year, authentically hit all of the touchpoints popular with fans of the vintage watch aesthetic without having alter its original design and has since been realised with stainless steel and bronze models in a choice of 37mm and 42mm cases and a number of colorways as well as the Captain Cook MkIII.

Now comes the turn of ceramic, the material people most associate with Rado, to create four new references with a new 43mm case and two finishes, a regular matt finish High-Tech Ceramic and plasma-treated ceramic, which is visually indistinguishable from polished metal. Each watch features a hardened stainless steel rotating bezel with a ceramic ring insert, features a transparent dial revealing the automatic Rado Calibre R734 movement inside and offers 300m water resistance.

The black High-Tech Ceramic watches are available with bezels either in raw stainless steel or gold PVD-treated steel. The steel-only model is available on both a full ceramic bracelet or a rubber strap.

The final model uses its plasma-treated ceramic for the middle links of its bracelet, which, when set against the gunmetal-coloured ceramic of the case and outer links of the bracelet, gives the same impression of a metal watch finished with a mix of polishing and satin-brushing. Here the ceramic bezel ring is a muted blue.

The Captain Cook High-Tech Ceramic collection is available now via Rado, priced between $3,300 USD and $3,800 USD.

Elsewhere in watches, H Moser sets out to erase itself from existence with a Parisian modder.