This week, Rado debuted an interesting reissue of an attractive 1960s Over-Pole timepiece from the company’s archives.
Presented in the Rado’s modern yet conservatively sized 37 mm x 10.3 mm stainless steel case (43.1 mm lug-to-lug) — with a rotating black ceramic bezel insert laser engraved with 24 prominent city names — by rotating the bezel, in conjunction with the 24-hour scale on the perimeter of the dial, you can quickly check the time around the world. (Please note that the case thickness provided to us is likely excluding the crystal, which means in reality the real thickness is over 13 mm.)
The 1960s Over-Pole wristwatch has the same signature rhodium-plated anchor logo rotating at 12 o’clock on the dial, with similar thick rectangular applied indices, and practically identical Dauphine-shaped hour and minute hands, as well as the same baton-style center seconds hand. Even the italic font that reads “Over-Pole” is almost the same as the original. Where the two designs differ the most is the dial. The vintage model has a silver sunburst dial with a cyclops magnifier over the date window, whereas the modern Over-Pole has a silver-to-black gradient dial with no cyclops over the date aperture.
The bezel font is also slightly different, and of course, the case, bezel, and movement are contemporary. The movement is an ETA-based manually wound caliber R862, with an 80-hour power reserve, and that’s been decorated with machine-made Geneva stripes and blued screws and is visible through a clear screw-in caseback. The depth rating is 100 meters.
Each watch comes in a stylish brown pouch, with both a beads-of-rice bracelet and a vintage-style brown leather strap, which are swappable without a tool via Rado’s Easy Clip system.
Only 1,962 pieces of the Rado Captain Cook Over-Pole Limited Edition (Ref. R32116158) will be produced, and Hodinkee received exclusive access to sell these for the first 30 days from launch, which will be followed by distribution at Rado’s traditional retailers. The retail price is $2,400.
Photo by Rado.
