Introducing Rado's Captain Cook Returns With A Dial Of "Shimmering Intensity"

There’s a particular nostalgia tied to writing about Rado and the Captain Cook, beyond being way too easily captivated by the glimmer of a grained gold dial. When I started covering watches, the brand, and in particular the Captain Cook diver’s watch collection, was already deep into the vintage revival wave that the industry is still somewhat riding. This was as one of the progenitors, while opening up the brand to a new audience not au fait with their sleek, dark ceramic wares (me, I am old enough). This revival was well before “heritage reissue” became a checkbox on every brand’s roadmap, and the original Captain Cook, born in 1962, was part of the first wave of the mid-20th-century skin-diving watches that remain popular today.

With its dive watch DNA, Rado has kept evolving the Captain into larger, ceramic and skeletonised versions, and through this, the increasingly recognisable concave bezel of the Captain Cook – together with a soft-on-wrist feel of a traditional beads-of-rice bracelet – has garnered plenty of enthusiasm from watch nerds and high street shoppers alike. The latter might eschew the purity and go for the charmingly idiosyncratic big boy in 43mm with the chic scratch-free formula of ceramic, while the enthusiasts might just be rejoicing to see this more modestly proportioned 39mm reference (measuring 12mm in thickness). A 39mm diver’s watch is pretty much a Goldilocks fit for most wrist sizes, and with a glittering party trick, it stands out from the rest of Rado’s current catalogue.

Even from a glance, the dial is obviously the main character in this story, as a design decision that wonderfully juxtaposes the tool watch functionality of a watch that’s more than capable of flexing its depth rating of 300m. The dial itself is built through a multi-stage process that shifts the character with the angle of your wrist in the sun, complemented by chunky hands and indices (to keep things legible), a date sitting cleanly at 3 o’clock, and a rotating ceramic bezel that does its job in 15-minute increments. The hands, indices, and bezel markings are filled with Super-Luminova to ensure a long-lasting nighttime glow, while a delightful detail on the bezel is the outer ring that arrives in polished PVD gold to match the glammed-up dial. No serious complications, no distractions, just a dial with more presence on the wrist than we’ve seen from the Captain Cook line-up in the past.

In line with the rest of the Captain Cook collection, the Shimmering Intensity reference comes complete with the EasyClip system that makes strap and bracelet changes easy, allowing you to swap between the beads-of-rice bracelet and the black rubber strap (both of which come with the watch) according to the mood you wake up in. It reads dressy with its polished small rounded mid links, while the black rubber strap is a soft, textured alternative that wears a little lighter and works perfectly for sports.

For existing fans of the Rado Captain Cook, this is a small, confident update, and for newcomers to the brand, it could be the one that gets their attention. The 39mm size is pretty much spot on for all, and one of the things to love about Rado is that it knows exactly what the Captain Cook is for and isn’t afraid to have a little fun with it. I, for one, have always had a soft spot for tool watches that can look as cheekily good with a suit as they do by the sea, and this one nails that brief.

What’s new here is that Rado hasn’t simply repeated the vintage revival formula. This latest Captain Cook takes the familiar tool-watch shape and gives it an eye-catching update that doesn’t lose the legibility and purpose that made the original a useful tool-and-sports watch in the first place. The automatic movement is the proven R763, a Rado-specific version of a Swatch Group star with the still-impressive 80-hour power reserve and the advantages of an antimagnetic Nivachron hairspring. All in, this package is very accurate, tested for five rather than the usual three positions to improve accuracy.

As a final note, let’s not forget the all-important lug-to-lug stretch, which is 45.5mm. That’s a pretty sweet size, especially when paired with the beads-of-rice bracelet that adds to the everyday appeal of this sparkly new arrival from Rado.

Brand: Rado
Model: Captain Cook
Reference Number: R32223258
Diameter: 39mm
Lug-to-Lug: 45.5mm
Case Material: Polished stainless steel, with polished yellow gold-coloured PVD-coated bezel
Dial Colour: Yellow gold-coloured, diamond powder-like sparkling decoration. Yellow gold PVD-coated coloured, applied indices and hands
Indexes: Applied
Lume: Super-LumiNova
Water Resistance: 300 meters
Strap/Bracelet: Stainless steel rice grain-type bracelet with EasyClip system and 3-fold clasp, plus black rubber strap with pin buckle

Calibre: Rado R763
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, date
Diameter: 25.6mm
Power Reserve: 80 hours
Winding: Automatic
Frequency: 21,600 VpH (3 Hz)
Jewels: 25
Chronometer Certified: No

Price: A$4,500
Availability: Now
Limited Edition: No

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