Exactly 30 years ago, a company from the Swiss city of Lengnau showed a watch made of black high-tech zirconium ceramics. They were simply called Ceramica and featured a square case with a fully integrated wide ceramic bracelet. The model heralded the advent of the era of minimalism in watch design, actually invented by the designers of Rado - futuristic and ergonomic.
Today, the black ceramic square Rado returns in the True Square collection. Instead of the injection molding method that was used 30 years ago, engineers used injection molding technology to create a base for a monolithic square-shaped body. However, True Square cannot be considered an ideal square in the mathematical sense: the parameters of the male model with an automatic movement are 38.0 × 44.2 mm, the women's quartz model is 29.0 × 34.3 mm.
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The Rado True Square is the basis for this year's special design series. Briton Tej Chohan proposed a construction of bright yellow matte high-tech ceramic with a strap of leather cushion links connected by ceramic inlays.
“We purposefully use shape, color and material to evoke positive emotions in people,” commented the designer.
Concentric silvery circles are applied on the black matte background of the dial, on top of which the hands move. The bright orange date indicator uses Teja Chohan's signature font.
Watch True Square Tej Chauhan, Rado
True Square Undigital is a project by Rado and the Japanese duo YOY. The watch features a seven-segment indicator, a classic component of all electronic watches, but in fact they have an analog dial.
Super-LumiNova white phosphor (one segment is applied to the hour hand and two to the minute) is perfectly readable both in the light, against the background of matt black ceramic, and in the dark.
Watch True Square Undigital, Rado YOY
True Square Formafantasma has become the complete antagonist of the black Undigital watch. The project was invented by Italians Andrea Trimarki and Simone Farresin, who live and work in Holland. The name of their studio Formafantasma is translated from Italian as “phantom image”, “ghostly form”.
Actually, the True Square model turned out to be partly phantom: the square monolithic case has a front cover made of light gray ceramic with a small window made of sapphire glass. Through it, three hands of different thickness are visible, by which you can guess what time it is. The lid above the dial recalls the tradition of pocket watches.
“In a small piece, details matter, and the more we tried to give the watch a clean, natural look, the more difficult it was to achieve. The development took over a year: creating simple things is always difficult,”admitted the designers of Formafantasma.
Watch True Square Formafantasma, Rado