Since 1917
From a family workshop in Lengnau to a global design-led watchmaker, Rado has built its identity through technical courage, material innovation and unmistakable form.
Explore the erasA chronological archive
This prototype follows the cleaned historical chapters: origins in Lengnau, the material revolution, the design era, modern ceramic engineering and the values that define Rado today.
1917-1937
Born in Lengnau, Switzerland. Imagined for the world.
Origins
Friedrich, Ernst and Werner Schlup transformed the attic of the family farmhouse in Lengnau into a watchmaking workshop. The company produced hand-wound and lever movements, building its reputation on precision, adaptability and Swiss craftsmanship.
Workshop
Schlup & Co. became a public limited company, marking a new stage in its professional development. The business remained modest in size, but its export orientation was already central to its growth.
1950s-1961
The Rado name moved from a protected mark to the identity of a growing international watch brand.
Brand identity
The Rado name had been protected in 1928, but the late 1950s marked the moment when it began to take on a clearer brand identity. Archive material shows Rado expanding into markets including Hong Kong, Thailand, Korea and Japan.
Early collections
The early Rado collections helped define the brand's move from movement maker to watchmaker. The archive material suggests care here: Green Horse appears first in 1960, while Golden Horse followed in 1961 with gold-plated details and the two-seahorse dial emblem.
1962-1986
When others saw limits, Rado saw the materials of the future.
Materials
In 1960, Rado filed a patent for a hardmetal watch case. Suppliers considered the idea impossible, but Rado persisted. In 1962, DiaStar turned that vision into reality, combining hardmetal with sapphire crystal.
Continue to ceramic
Adventure
Captain Cook and Over-Pole were part of Rado's early 1960s wave of named models, reflecting the period's appetite for exploration, water resistance and travel-oriented functions.
1970s-1990s
Square forms, edge-to-edge sapphire, anatomical shapes and black ceramic gave Rado a design identity of its own.
Sapphire crystal
DiaStar 67, known internally as Glissiere, introduced edge-to-edge sapphire crystal between hardmetal plates. It helped Rado create a sharper and more architectural design language.
Anatomical design
Anatom gave sapphire crystal a curved ergonomic form. The archive drawings show a watch shaped around the wrist rather than a flat case adapted to it.
High-tech ceramic
The idea that became Integral began with an anatomical watch concept and a new lightweight, scratch-resistant bracelet. In 1986, Rado confirmed the use of high-tech ceramic for the bracelet, setting the brand on a path that would transform its future.
Design icon
Ceramica, launched in 1990, transformed high-tech ceramic into a black, bracelet-like icon. Created with designer Werner Scholpp, it helped establish Rado's ceramic identity through the 1990s and 2000s.
See the modern material story
2000s-Present
Innovating tomorrow's classics.
Record-breaking materials
V10K continued Rado's long quest for hardness, reaching 10,000 Vickers through diamond-like surface technology. It carried the scratch-resistant idea into a new century.
Thin ceramic
True Thinline showed another kind of mastery: an ultra-thin high-tech ceramic watch built around lightness, precision and restraint.
Color
Rado's modern ceramic story is also a color story. Through pigment research, plasma ceramic and special color collections, high-tech ceramic became a broad design palette.
Heritage revival
Since 2016, Rado has looked back into its archive to move forward. HyperChrome 1616, Captain Cook, Over-Pole, DiaStar Original and Anatom show how historic forms can be reinterpreted through contemporary materials and today's design language.
Our mission
Rado's mission is to imagine what a watch can become, then engineer it into reality.
Core values
Rado today is defined by Swiss precision, material expertise, design courage and a belief that innovation should be felt as much as seen. Its watches are built for lasting beauty: resistant, comfortable, recognizable and continually evolving.
Master of materials
Explore the icons, innovations and contemporary collections shaped by more than a century of Rado history.