Introducing Rado Celebrates Four Decades Of Ceramic With The Integral 40-Year Anniversary Edition

Rado is a brand that's synonymous with ceramic. If I think about the brand's catalogue, the weird, quirky shapes in glossy blacks and whites are what shine above the rest, both metaphorically and literally speaking. But it speaks to the brand and its long history with the material, 40 years in fact, as well as its share of the ceramic watch market around the sub-ten-thousand-dollar price point.

Now, Rado is a curious brand within the Swatch Group. Its nickname of "the Rolex of India" certainly carries some weight, thanks to 42% of its business being in India, the Middle East, and Africa. In India, the most populous country in the world, the market share is a whopping 50% of watches between CHF 1,000 and 3,700 (per the brand).

This year marks a big anniversary for Rado, commemorating 40 years since the debut of the Integral, the brand's first watch featuring ceramic. And so this occasion brings forth the Integral 40-Year Anniversary edition, an absolute throwback to the original that retains its very definitely 80s look. Clad in shiny black and gold, it preserves the original design's rectangular case, albeit in slightly larger dimensions each way, with a 28mm width and 39.8mm length.

Thanks to the Rado R279 quartz calibre inside, the watch remains quite slim at 7.3mm in height. Black ceramic in the form of bezel and middle bracelet links is paired with a contrasting yellow gold look, in the form of PVD coating for the case, the rest of the bracelet, as well as dial furniture and colour-matched date window. An edge-to-edge curved sapphire crystal, with golden metallisation in the form of two rectangular outlines, ties it all together.

The new Rado Integral 40-Year Anniversary is priced at A$4,200.

Ceramics have obviously been a strong part of Rado's brand identity, and I think that their watches, while not always universally appealing, always double down into their niche, and I appreciate that most about their product lines. I recently had the chance to visit their Comadur facility, where ceramics for Rado (as well as for some other Swatch Group sister brands) were being produced. Sadly, while I was hoping to get a photo report out of the experience, no photos were actually allowed in the facility, but it was absolutely fascinating to see the evolution from powders to the final, polished products.

Rado uses two processes to form its ceramic cases. There's pressing, where ceramic powder is pressed at extremely high pressures to form the initial shape, which is then sintered at extremely high temperatures. But for more complex geometries, injection moulding is used. This was a bit of an eye-opener for me, as it was hard to wrap my mind around how you could even possibly inject-mould ceramic. 

Turns out, ceramic powders are actually mixed with a plastic compound that acts as a carrier agent, and this slurry is then injected into moulds at extremely high pressure (around 1,000 bar). After the shape inside the mould is cooled, a debinding process occurs where that plastic compound is essentially dissolved, and then the remaining pure ceramic pieces get sintered. There is, of course, major shrinkage that occurs at this step, which means that things like moulds have to be designed to accommodate the size decrease.

As for the launch of the Integral 40-Year itself, which was the main focus for the brand during the visit, the new watch feels like it was plucked straight from a time machine. Yes, that means that the design certainly feels dated, which I suppose is kind of the point. Ceramic at this price point is certainly a unique proposition, though its durability is contrasted by all the other parts of the watch coated in a yellow PVD. Ultimately, the release of the Integral 40-Year Anniversary is a quirky snapshot of Rado's history that marks a story of ceramic watchmaking much larger than the release itself.

Brand: Rado
Model: Integral
Reference Number: R20258162

Diameter: 28mm (width), 39.8mm (length)
Thickness: 7.3mm
Case Material: Yellow gold-coloured PVD-coated stainless steel
Dial Colour: Brushed black
Indexes: Applied
Lume: Super-LumiNova
Water Resistance: 50 meters
Strap/Bracelet: Bracelet in PVD-coated stainless steel and black ceramic

Caliber: R279
Functions: Hours, minutes, date
Winding: Quartz

Price: A$4,200, US$2,700
Availability: Now
Limited Edition: No

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