The Rado Captain Cook 2022: read all our product reviews so far

Since its launch, the Rado Captain Cook has opened a new chapter at Rado. The contemporary Captain Cook is a nod to a top-selling and one of the most sought-after collections from the Swiss brand, uniquely offering a rugged diving watch in a luxury sports watch disguise at a fair market price. Vintage Rado Captain Cook watches are highly valued on the second-hand watches marketplace; thus, Rado has released an extensive product portfolio including vintage-inspired timepieces, though modern at heart since they feature the latest-generation 80-hour power reserve calibres, or specific mechanical movements as with the top-of-the-range High-Tech Ceramic.

The current Rado Captain Cook watch collection kicked off with the Captain Cook 37mm, alongside neo-vintage timepieces like the Rado Captain Cook Hyperchrome, a specific take on the Captain Cook template sitting across this and the HyperChrome collection. The model mentioned above is out of catalogue now, and the current offering has lost the HyperChrome nickname, which usually refers to a whole different product. The Rado Captain Cook Limited Edition models (measuring 37mm across) are much appreciated among vintage-Rado fans or those with a reasonably small wrist.

Instead, the Rado Captain Cook MK2 and Captain Cook MKIII belong to the Rado Original range while representing reissues to specific historical models, despite the Rado Captain Cook MK III being a “neo-vintage” take. You’ll find links to their hands-on reviews while reading the article. In contrast, this archive article includes the titanium option once classified as HyperChrome, as stated, and usually referred to as Rado Captain Cook XXL or The Rado Captain Cook given its hefty 45mm case size.

The green Rado Captain Cook, offered initially as a 200m and as a 300m rated watch then, is the collection’s bread and butter, yet the newly released Rado Captain Cook in Red, featuring a smoked red dial, is the most attractive of them all, so far.

2022: The Rado Captain Cook comes with a smoked red dial and black ceramic bezel

The 300-meter Captain Cook is as good as it gets. It’s a fairly-priced compliant sports watch on a steel bracelet boasting excellent build quality. The new variant couldn’t be any different; it instead proves we can still buy top-notch watches on a budget offering the same product quality found on timepieces costing twice as much or more.

The new smoked red dial

The piece of news is the 2022 new smoked red dial; it goes from red to black as you move towards the dial’s outer edge. It reminds me of the limited red edition Rado Golden Horse and adds a vintage touch to a quintessentially contemporary watch. While the green option comes as no surprise any longer, the Rado reference R32105353 offers superior sophistication. The black ceramic inlay makes it a less polarizing but distinctive watch whose pedigree epitomizes Rado‘s DNA better than its green counterpart. I would opt for the Red Captain Cook, which sets itself apart as a two-tone Captain Cook sports watch.

The overall features

The bracelet offers a subtle and hidden quick-release mechanism offering seamless integration with the case. Yet, I’m not the greatest fan of watches adopting quick release pins instead of push-buttons, especially on a steel bracelet. It takes time and tiny fingers to quickly release and lock the bracelet to the case; a push-button is my fav choice and is widely adopted by other brands belonging to the Swatch group. You’ll end up losing the pin quickly. I’m not the biggest fan of Captain Cook‘s three-link bracelet, too; I think its design is too mainstream, while Rado offers a more attractive “beads of rice” option. It looks bizarre, but I also hardly understand why Rado is not offering any rubber replacement strap on a 300 meters diving watch.

Final thoughts

The Rado Captain Cook is a grown-up product, consistently improved along the way. The 42 mm case is perhaps too much, but the 12,3 mm thickness makes it comfortable enough for various people. However, I’ll offer a 39 mm model sometime soon. I’ll also add a replacement rubber strap soon since summer is approaching, and I’ll, nonetheless, come with a titanium option, too, paired to this 42 mil template.

2021: The Rado Captain Cook High-Tech Ceramic watch hands-on

The Rado Captain Cook High-Tech Ceramic adds to a product range conceived to celebrate iconic Rado watches from the past geared towards vintage Rado watches die-hard fans. The Captain Cook collection raised a wide following since its launch, and the offering was so classic, so far, that I wouldn’t have foreseen any addition other than the umpteenth vintage-inspired Rado watch. With the High-Tech four variations introduced, Rado is the only brand to offer modern yet classic timepieces alongside the most modern take on the full ceramic watch.

Why did Rado develop the Captain Cook High-Tech Ceramic?

Rado‘s mission is to design and manufacture the ultimate (and affordable) full ceramic watch. Despite housing the most modern calibres, its neo-vintage collections played with the nostalgia factor to attract a selected group of customers. However, the brand keeps adding a flagship product to showcase its expertise and trigger tech-savvy enthusiasts to discover new collections.

Compared to similar experiments across the portfolio, the Captain Cook High-tech Ceramic is the most advanced since it is a 300-meter professional diving watch and comes equipped with terrific technical upgrades inside and out. Whether you’re a fan of full ceramic Rados or not, you can’t deny there’s no competition in this price segment.

Case and bracelet

As mentioned, the Captain Cook High-tech Ceramic is available in four variations, two of which are pictured here; you’re offered with three options in black ceramic (with or without ceramic matching bracelet), and a fourth one adopting plasma ceramic, Ceramos™ and a blue ceramic inlay on the rotating bezel. The latter is to Captain Cook what a plasma ceramic HyperChrome Chrono is to standard models and has a steel or titanium sports watch feel to it. All models adopt Rado‘s signature one-piece case design, which is as ingenious as a kind of a letdown.

The build is robust and guarantees enough strength to offset zirconium oxide’s poor resilience when compared to steel, for example. However, the outcome is a bold but hefty watch designed to accommodate mainly large wrists: it measures 43 millimetres across and is 14.6 mm thick. Weighing in at 157 grams, the High-Tech is a “tool watch”.

Nonetheless, there are some metal parts here and there; the rotating bezel’s grooved ring is in (hardened) steel and adopts a PVD coating on the gold-coloured variation. The bracelet alternates glossy to matt black ceramic links rather than matte or polished plasma ceramic ones; both are fastened via a butterfly-designed clasp in titanium. The concave ceramic insert’s finish is exquisite, and the rotating bezel offers a sturdy, no-gap feel. Rado‘s expertise in making multi-compound ceramic watches stands out here.

The dial is a see-through sapphire crystal; it is brilliant since it visually lightens the watch and enhances the three-dimensional construction and displacement of parts, like the floating trapezoidal indexes and the equally floating logo with the anchor on top. It looks like an unconventional mixture of a “vaguely vintage” Captain Cook with contrasting ultra-modern materials. This controversial combination is the main esthetic takeaway. The mass-produced mechanical movement offers unique specifications, which we will discuss in the following paragraph.

The Rado calibre R734

The R734 is the product’s communication’s centrepiece, and for a good reason. Capable of running for 80 hours when fully wound, the new movement is the first of its kind to adopt a Nivachron hairspring. Few people know that this hairspring (crafted out of a titanium base) was developed with Audemars Piguet and sets itself as an option for in-house silicon hairsprings. The Swatch Group declares the Nivachron offers superior resistance to magnetic fields (whose impact is 10 to 20 times lower, depending on the model) compared to a traditional hairspring and is not affected by temperature changes while ensuring optimal shock resistance.

Certina debuted the Swatch Group‘s new hairspring; I believe Nivachron is a mass-produced industrial component whose performances are in line with silicon while cutting down on production costs. From a product marketing perspective, Rado pushes on its value proposition’s uniqueness inside and out of the watch, in contrast to the original and exclusive full-ceramic storytelling. As a proof of concept, each timepiece goes through a five-position regulation instead of three.

Final thoughts

The Rado Captain Cook High-Tech Ceramic is perhaps the most sophisticated or advanced Rado watch money can buy, and I’ll pick the plasma ceramic model option, no doubt.

It is the closest thing to any steel or titanium sports watch but is far less prone to wear; a High-Tech will preserve its as-new condition for years to come, thus reducing after-sales costs when it’s time for a whole product overhaul, which includes case polishing.

Conversely, its size and weight make it a niche timepiece; I suggest Rado slim down case width and height to hopefully please smaller wrists. The retail price is € 3,950, thus sitting on top of Rado‘s price waterfall while offering a package that outperforms any approachable competitor.

2020: The Rado Captain Cook 300 meters

If you ask a Rado executive which model is the current brand’s hero, you’ll perhaps end up hearing: “The Rado Captain Cook.” Launched in 2019, in various color combinations, the Captain Cook has raised much success, especially with a green or blue dial and matching ceramic bezel. The offering also includes multiple case sizes and dial styles, thus appealing to vintage Rado fans as much as to potential new customers whose budget is in the mid-range class of products. Accordingly, I appreciate what they did when they also introduced the Rado Original Captain Cook MKII, whose feel is so close to the original version that I own. A year has gone, and Rado has upgraded the Captain Cook collection already. What did they change, and why? Let’s find out.

Upgrading an almost new timepieces’ product line is as rare as it gets, even for a fast-moving brand like Rado unless the so-called “Voice of the customer” has pushed the brand to change something, which is not the case, however. From a consumer’s perspective, anyone who bought the Captain Cook first edition might find this move misleading, given the one-year lifecycle so far.

Nevertheless, from a specs sheet point of view, the upgrade was not that relevant, nor irrelevant too, in my opinion. The 2020 Rado Captain Cook 300m is essentially unchanged; the mechanical movement included (it is automatic with eighty hours of power reserve when fully wound), but, as the name suggests, it is water-resistant to up to 300m, with the “outgoing” variant being 200m WR instead. You can quickly spot new and old ones since the former showcases the 300m/1000ft wording on the dial.

They both come at 42mm across and are 12,1mm thick. As soon as I unboxed the new one, I couldn’t’ avoid noticing the 2020 Captain Cook features a darker green Pantone too. Take a look at our photos of the 2019 edition, and you’ll recognize the previous one’s green is brighter and more brilliant. Rado confirmed what we have guessed; my idea is that Rado designers should opt for a darker tone to pair with the steel option as smoothly as with the new bronze one.

A new three-link bracelet sporting the Easy Clip quick release system debuts, along with a folding clasp with micro-extension mechanism, proving the 2020 Captain Cook 300 is a more tool-watch take on the standard one. Anyone can swap bracelets as per his or her liking, whether you’re in for a Captain Cook 200m “beads of rice” or not, including leather and NATO straps alternatives. Rado added a kit option too, including those strap options, at a very attractive premium price.

As the 2020 products phased-in, the 2019 model didn’t phase out, at least until quantities last, I believe. The truth is that you can still opt for the 2019 edition, on a bead of rice bracelet, and the 2020 option on a three-link bracelet as well, as standard. The point is: “Which one should a potential buyer choose?” The answer is not as straightforward as you’d love to hear. The Rado Captain Cook 2020 is, no doubt, technically more refined (especially if you’re a diver) but jumps in at 165 grams, hence a 20% more than its 2019 sibling.

The price gap, 2,170 Euros Vs. 2,070 Euros, is insignificant. At a 2,370 Euro retail price, you can go for the kit version with two additional straps, whereas, by adding 160 Euros to the 2020 Captain Cook‘s sticker price, you can make a bead of rice replacement bracelet yours. In summary, you might make the 2020 Captain Cook on old bracelet yours, weighing the original 137 grams, by spending 2,330 Euros instead of 2,070 Euros. Here is my choice, at least.

2020: the Rado Captain Cook Automatic Bronze

The new Rado Captain Cook Automatic Bronze combines three materials: bronze, titanium, and ceramic. It is not breaking news in the industry except you won’t expect such a strange offering from the brand that is synonymous with ceramic watches. That’s an acceptable choice when looking at the beautiful Captain Cook, among Rado‘s most appreciated and top-selling new timepieces, instead. The Rado Captain Cook Automatic Bronze is the brand’s second bronze watch, after the HyperChrome, whose adoption of bronze was restricted to a few parts.

This new variant of Captain Cook also confirms what Rado experimented when launching the True Thinline Nature Collection, which means releasing three color variants inspired from and connected to nature. Unlike the original steel Captain Cook, the bronze one comes exclusively on a leather strap with matching bronze tang buckle, unlike most brands. The pin buckle is a perfect match for this collection. If I had to pick the closest possible competitor, it would bring me straight to Montblanc’s 1858 collection and the time-only version, primarily.

Both technically and esthetically, the curved bezel with ceramic inlay is among the Captain Cook‘s design cues. It also is a clear homage to the sixties, as proved by the freshly released Breitling Superocean Heritage 1957, whose vintage sibling adopted a similar solution. Measuring 42mm, across, and 12,5mm in thickness, it is bold without being hefty. By pairing the bronze case and bezel with a titanium-alloy-crafted case back, the watch is hypoallergenic, while stopping its weight to a more than acceptable 79 grams. My only concern regards the engravings on the back, which, in my experience, usually pinch the wrist. Nothing we can confirm until we are allowed to fasten one around our wrist, something we hope to do anytime soon. The Rado Captain Cook Bronze houses the ETA C07 caliber whose base module is common to other brands belonging to the Swatch group, although no silicon balance spring is mentioned in the specs sheet.

The caliber’s eighty hours of maximum power reserve prove the timepiece is modern and technically more refined than its direct competitors if we exclude, again, those coming from Rado‘s sister brands. A slightly cambered dial and golden applied indexes filled with lots of white Super–LumiNova® (the Rado Captain Cook is a diving watch, capable of ensuring a 300-meter water resistance) complete this range extender’s package. If I were asked to list the pros, I would first mention the bezel’s build quality. You cannot expect anything other than excellent build quality from the master of all things ceramics, and this Captain Cook is no different. For example, the ceramic inlay is exquisitely crafted and offers touch and feel on par to that provided by competitors costing twice as much.

Regarding the color options, I would go for the blue or green ones and discard the brown one instead. When going for any bronze watch, consider it will change appearance over time, due to the natural oxidation process. Under such conditions, the brown dialed variant might tend to become too brownish; vice versa, I predict the other two ones create a pleasant contrast between patina and polished parts, like bezel and dial. We’re just speculating since you won’t know how everything will end up unless you own one. The Rado Captain Cook Automatic Bronze has a retail price of 2,680 Euros. It can also be purchased online if you’re living in the following countries: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

2019: The Rado Captain Cook Automatic 42mm watches hands-on

I’m glad to see that Rado keeps re-issuing its historic timepieces and enlarging the current Captain Cook collection. That collection has a huge following and is equally appreciated by vintage Rado lovers and millennials, whose admiration for the brand’s products grows at a steady pace. The 2019 Rado Captain Cook collection follows the likes of successful watches like the Rado Original Captain Cook MKII and the newly released Rado Golden Horse 1957, a faithful re-edition of the original Golden Horse, that was on display last year at Villa Gamberaia, Florence, during the International Press Launch of the Rado True Thinline Nature Collection.

Green, blue, and brown color combinations to symbolize nature.

Three new colored versions join the current collection (with the addition of a black one), and two of them are pictured here. The renewed Captain Cook range was initially launched in 2017, showcasing two slightly different designs: a hefty 45mm large Rado Hyperchrome Captain Cook and an accurate replica of the first-ever made, the 37mm wide 1962–piece limited edition Rado Captain Cook Automatic.

Rado has an unconventional approach, aesthetically speaking, when it comes to drawing inspiration from the past: it designs a replica, geared towards vintage replica addicts, and a more modern take on the original one, that blends past and present as the HyperChrome Captain Cook did. Two years after the official launch, the product family broadens with the addition of a list of 42mm sized Captain Cooks, to close the gap between small and big timepieces.

Frankly, the 42mm case is a winner: the vintage-inspired lines, the elongated and straight lugs, the curved-on-the-side yet flat-in-the-center sapphire glass-box, and, finally, the 12.1mm thickness make this Captain Cook look clean and graceful. The 2019 collection welcomes three color schemes: the ceramic inlay on the rotating bezel comes in vivid green, dark blue, or brown, thus mimicking one-to-one the Rado True Thinline Nature collection.

A journey into the 60s.

The sixties reshaped politics, culture, music and, as far as mechanical watches are concerned, welcomed some of the most desirable watches in decades. Old and new brands (with no historical roots in watchmaking) keep re-issuing or re-inventing vintage divers’ watches from that age, for example.

Among the new releases, I think the Rado Captain Cook 42mm Automatic with green dial and matching green ceramic bezel is divine, first and foremost when associated to the steel mesh bracelet, showcasing a slim and long folding clasp, with the embossed Rado brand logo on it. It pays tribute to the old Rado watches, except for that patented surface treatment that made them the first virtually scratch-proof watches ever. The inlay is an exquisitely-engineered ceramic ring, whose thickness is smaller than that of an HyperChrome Captain Cook‘s. In this variant it is in light, vivid green, coupled to a glossy green smoked dial; all in all, execution and style are flawless.

The second one comes with an oceanic dark blue mated to a glossy blue smoked dial instead. It is essentially the same watch, yet the latter doesn’t feel as sexy as its green sibling. The truth is that blue is abused these days, while green is uncommon to a vintage divers’ watch instead. At least, I would have preferred to compare them like for like (steel on steel).

Regarding details, the Rado Captain Cook‘s main design attribute is the visual contrast between the concave bezel and the sapphire glass, that makes it mesmerizing. As an option, or a replacement strap, Rado offers a strap in soft leather with one stitching per side, that would have worked dramatically on a pin buckle, as on the 37mm sized Captain Cook. In either case, elongated straight lugs help to make the watch very comfortable, and “wearability” is where most product managers are focusing their efforts.

Eighty hours of power reserve: let’s talk about it.

Style and comfort on the wrist end up with sidelining the product specifications: the Rado Captain Cook 42mm Automatic benefits of the most recent upgrades at ETA included the popular three-hand mechanical caliber with the date and eighty hours of power reserve, that outperforms the competition in this price range (2,020€). If you compare Rado to other brands belonging to the Swatch Group, this performance is often emphasized on some brands (Mido for example), although many are the distinctive features between this movement and its competitors’ within the Group, like the Chronometer certification or the silicon balance spring, for instance.

However, I think this performance is so distinctive in today’s competitive scenario, that each brand should always emphasize it, considering that a long power reserve is what people appreciate the most in everyday use, especially so during the weekend where many usually replace their mechanical watch with a multi-functional smartwatch.

2017: please welcome the Rado HyperChrome Captain Cook

At the end of the 60s, Rado (founded in 1950) entered the world of watch-making with a mission of a sort of materials laboratory and reinterpret products in an original manner. The time of powders sintering – the first step that led towards the creation of ceramic cases – was still far away and Rado‘s work mainly focused on how to harden traditional metals (a process already quite widespread in the chemical and metallurgical industries).

Rado was one of the best performers of an era that saw the brand’s being born, when its timepieces were the expression of the avant-garde movement that brought in a new concept of durability and reliability that still did not exist, coupled with the typical shapes of the time. The Rado Ticin that I own still sports both a perfect case and a bracelet despite it being used very often and having undergone no servicing in over forty years. The Captain Cook family – to which this watch belongs – is one of the main pillars of the project that aims at bringing back the brand’s roots.

This is an intelligent operation, because it adds the historical reminiscence of past models that began last year with the Cape Horn and that clearly aims at consolidating Rado’s heritage value to its current avant-gardist style. The Rado Hyperchrome Captain Cook 2017 made its come-back in three versions that are suitably segmented for those who love the vintage style and different sizes; perfect examples of these new trends are the 37mm case, the historic diver’s dial of the collection, or the Milanese mesh with Top Wesselton diamonds on the dial in the woman’s version of the timepiece. Finally, because this is a Rado watch no matter what, it also features an oversized version with arrow-shaped indexes on the dial, a grade 5 titanium case, and a bezel with a ceramic insert applied to a stainless steel bezel with carbon injection.

The timepiece is entirely crafted using blue tones; a shade that is always present in watch catalogues, the Rado Hyperchrome Captain Cook Blue sports a peculiar bezel with an edge inclined towards the middle of the dial; a rather odd choice that increases the feeling of greatness of a watch that is otherwise extremely light, well-built and completed with a blue denim strap (with leather insert) that is perfect for the summer.

Three sea horses are engraved on the case-back; the symbol of the scuba divers made in Legnau. The inner part of the watch hosts the ETA C07.611 calibre that guarantees up to 80 hours of power reserve. If this figure sounds familiar to you, it is because this calibre is the same one that equips other timepieces of other brands pertaining to the same group. Never was calibres’ standardization as useful as on this occasion, especially when it focuses on such high technical characteristics for an automatic three hands timepiece.

Honestly, I do not know if I would rather go for this version or the 37mm version with a flat bezel and maybe a Nato Strap, but if you regard the word “vintage” as a source of inspiration only, then the Rado Hyperchrome Captain Cook Blue is a well-balanced mix of Rado culture from the 70s and the best that you can find on the market as far as quality and sturdiness is concerned. This timepiece is an ode to the above-mentioned pioneering era and a tribute to a more traditional concept of watch-making that many of us would like to see in a Rado, without having to give up on innovation.

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(Photo credit: Marco Antinori for Horbiter®)