The company’s history began in 1917, when brothers Fritz, Ernst and Werner Schlup founded the family-owned watchmaking company Schlup & Co. An amazing ability to see opportunities where other leaders are supporting, makes the name of the Schlup brothers’ factory synonymous with Swiss quality. In 1957, the world saw the first RADO Green Horse watch. After 40 years of success, the family-owned watchmaking company Schlup & Co launches production of its own watches – RADO, which means “WHEEL” in the brand’s translation.
1962 – Rado DiaStar, the world’s first scratch-resistant watch, was made of an ultra-strong alloy and designed in a futuristic style. This decision marked the beginning of the brand’s philosophy.
In the same year, the first diving watch “Captain Cook” was released, intended for “doctors, engineers, athletes, long-distance sailors and racing car drivers.” Their distinctive feature was the rotating anchor (which later evolved into the RADO logo), indicating the need for maintenance. The Captain Cook watch captured the public’s attention and became one of Rado’s most successful designs.
1975 – The Elegance model featured a square and voluminous octagonal shape. Technically, it was far ahead of its time and embodied the spirit of the era with its modern design.
1976 – The Glissière model offered a square case with beveled edges. It reflected the time on the dial with a black aperture. Edge-to-edge sapphire crystal and metallization became firmly associated with the creation of the Rado brand.
1984 – The Rado Anatom “melded with the wearer’s wrist for maximum comfort.” The use of a round sapphire crystal was an innovation in watchmaking. Success was not long in coming – Andy Warhol created a large work with his images in New York. This painting turned out to be one of the last paintings created by the artist.
1986 – Integral. A revolutionary watch, marked by the use of high-tech ceramics, which had previously been used in the production of ultra-fast panels, and stood out for its resistance to the appearance of glass. The same material became the iconic Rado Ceramica watch, which was probably the first watch in the world made entirely of high-tech ceramics. In the same year, Rado joined the SMH group, which contributed to the emergence of a number of subsequent solutions.
2002 – Rado V10K entered the Guinness Book of Records as the most durable watch in the world. It was made of high-tech diamond and had incredible strength – 10,000 on the Vickers scale. The next achievement was the creation of incredibly thin watches from the True Thinline collection. The thickness of the monoblock case is only 4.9 mm. This innovation made it possible to create watches from the HyperChrome collection.
