Rado Watches: The Unique End Of The Watch Industry

When talking about luxury watches, the name Rado comes into mind of many wealthy people. Rado is a company in Lengnau, Switzerland that produces luxury watches

Rado was first established in 1917. During this time and thirty years thereafter, Rado was content in producing watch movements only. However, in 1957, Rado launched its first product line of watches. In 1962, the company made a breakthrough by launching the Rado Diastar watch.

This particular Rado watch was noted for being the world’s first scratch proof watch. Since then, the Diastar has been in production until now. The company has a short history compared to other brands. However, Rado quickly gained prestige and claimed high end status even if the company hasn’t been in the industry very long. Rado became part of the Swatch group in 1983.

Rado watches have the distinction for heavy use of scratch proof materials. For example, many Rado watches use high tech diamonds, ceramics, lanthanum and sapphire crystals. Many, however, are manufactured using standard materials such as gold and steel.

Rado watches are also noted for their unique look. Most Rado watches look futuristic. That is because the company is very adventurous in the design and concept of their watches. The concept is both good and bad for the company. Many appreciate the distinct look of a Rado watch. Some, however, choose watches with traditional looks.

To market Rado watches, the company partners with high end personalities to advertise their product lines. However, its marketing scheme in this aspect is unusual, too, just like their watches. The ambassadors of their watches are less popular than one can expect. In fact, many of the personalities are not generally known by the public.

Rado has a rationale for such an unusual marketing scheme. Its less-than-popular ambassadors represent how special the company’s watches are and how different its products are from the mainstream.

Another thing that separates Rado from other companies is that Rado does not allow authorized dealers to sell Rado watches over the internet. This seems to stem from the fact that Rado’s watches are vulnerable to forgeries due to their unique designs.

One can easily find out which are fake and genuine Rado watches. Lower end genuine Rado watches are priced at $800 while the more luxurious ones go up to $8,000. Fakes are priced in the low hundreds of dollars.

Through the effort of 300 staff, Rado presently manufactures and sells half a million watches annually.