Following true to their style, Rado has released another fully ceramic watch to add to their “True Collection.” The True collection has been a part of Rado’s lineup since 2007, and its signature has been the watch’s fully ceramic construction (minus the sapphire crystal). This latest addition, the Rado True Open Heart Automatic, is no exception and features a skeletonized open heart style dial to glimpse at the movement beating inside.
This Rado True Open Heart features a case that is 40mm in diameter, 10.4mm thick, and with a lug-to-lug length of 47.3mm, which suggests it will wear nicely – not too big, not too small. The entire case and bracelet, with the exception of the titanium caseback, are formed out of polished ceramic, which is available in three colors: black, silver, and brown. To go along with the case finishes, the dial is available in black with rose gold indices, black with rhodium indices, or brown with rose gold indices respectively. Powering the True Open Heart is the ETA C07.631, a movement based on the ETA 2824 series. This movement is an automatic three hand movement with 25 jewels, and a power reserve of 80 hours.
From a technical, academic perspective, this watch piques my horological nerdery. Rado has an extensive history of utilizing ceramic in interesting ways, dating back to their releases of “scratch resistant” ceramic watches, which on paper, sounds cool. However, at first glance I know it would not find a place on my wrist, ever. I stay towards the tool watch end of the spectrum, which we’ve seen Rado enter in the past couple years with their heritage inspired dive watches like the Captain Cook. Watches like this True Open heart, which make up the bulk of Rado’s lineup, are strange to me. The full ceramic construction is cool, and I’m sure it gives the entire watch a nice shine in person, but the open heart style dial combined with the shine of the ceramic makes this watch entirely too flashy and dressy for my taste. Rado saw a lot of media attention with the release of the Captain Cook, and I hope that they’ll start to release more watches of a similar vein.
To add to their extensive line of fully ceramic watches, Rado has released the new True Open Heart Automatic, which features an ETA based movement and 80-hour power reserve. The highly polished and dressy design is not a fit for my taste. However, Rado clearly has an audience for it as they’ve been pursuing this design language for decades. If you fall into that audience, the Rado True Open Heart Automatic is available starting at $2,050, via Rado directly. rado.com
