"At Rado, we don't follow the trends, we set the trends instead. We don't really look at what is happening in the market, we look at the future. We want to do things which have never been done in the market," says Roland Streule, the President of Rado.

The Swiss brand has been known for doing things that have never been done before, including introducing DiaStar, the world's first scratchproof watch in 1962 -- only 5 years after the brand was launched.

Founded in 1917, Rado supplied precision movements to the watch industry before presenting its first timepiece collection in 1957, under the brand name Rado. Today Rado is part of Swatch Group, the biggest watch conglomerate in the world.

While many Swiss watch brands highlight their heritage, Rado takes a different approach.

Instead of stressing heritage, Rado highlights its state-of-the-art technology and avant-garde materials. While other brands use conventional materials such as gold, brass or steel, Rado uses high-tech, new materials that have never been used before as well as striking, no-frills, futuristic designs as its recipe for success. "Our watches look futuristic. One of our company's philosophies is to always look forward, not backwards," Streule said.

Also, unlike many other brands, Rado's bezels are uncluttered, simple yet elegant, as "less is more" is one of the brand's basic principles.

The brand presents many black timepieces. In fact, the essence of Rado is fundamentally black. Design is Rado's distinguishing feature. Its watches are recognizable due to their distinctive beauty.

As for the price, in Indonesia, Rado timepieces are priced upwards of Rp 5,000,000 (US$454).

Rado timepieces have won numerous international design awards, such as Good Design Award (U.S) and Montres Passion General Public Price (Switzerland) for V10K watch, and iF Design Award China for Ceramica Chronograph, to name a few.

The brand has distinguished itself by using materials including high-tech diamond, high-tech lanthanum, sapphire crystal and high-tech ceramics.

The high-tech ceramics have not been used in the watch industry before. However, due to its extreme resistance, it had been applied in medicine and on the heat shield that enabled the space shuttle's re-entry into the earth's atmosphere.

The brand is indeed a pioneer in using new, cutting-edge materials and high-tech gadgetry -- Rado Ceramica watch was launched in 1998.

"We also use yellow ceramic," says Streule who adds that in the past watches were made from steel and then plated in gold in order to produce yellow-colored timepieces.

After 10 years of research, Rado launched Sintra Gold Jubil* in 2008, a beautiful, sleek golden ceramic watch, valued at Rp 43,450,000.

Also, Rado used cutting-edge technology to create high-tech diamonds that were as hard and unalterable as genuine diamonds. In 2004, Rado introduced V10K, a watch made of high-tech diamonds, whose hardness of 10,000 Vickers is matched only by natural diamonds. In fact, this is the hardest watch in the world. V10K actually stands for Vickers 10,000.

The Vickers scale is used to indicate hardness: the higher, the greater the resistance to scratches. Far higher than gold, steel or platinum, the top value at 10,000 is attributed only to natural diamonds as well as the Rado high-tech diamond surface. Rado used advanced nanotechnology to create its high-tech diamond surface.

The absolute hardness was created by transforming carbon into nanocrystalline diamond particles.

"The watch has been registered as the hardest timepiece in the Guinness Book of Records," says Streule.

The strap that is available in black, orange, red and blue is made from durable rubber called Caoutchouc. In Indonesia, V10K is priced at Rp 65,050,000.

China, as said by Streule, is Rado's biggest market. In terms of preferences, there are slight regional differences. In China, the best-selling Rado watches are the black pieces, such as Sintra that offers many black watches in its collection. In European market, black as well as platinum Rado watches are favorites.

"We have just launched Rado True Chronograph, one of our few round watches. Sometimes people perceive Rado as a brand that produces rectangular or square timepieces only, but actually we have round watches too," says Streule. True Chronograph has a price tag of Rp 24,350,000.

In addition to the Ceramica line, Rado also presents the sleek Ceramica Chronograph. The dial displays three counters of different sizes and the date at four o'clock.

The pushers operating the chronograph functions hardly protrude from the case. Ceramica Chronograph watches that fully produced from ceramics, comes in four versions: Chrono Polished, Chrono Matt, Chrono Jubil* and Chrono Jubil* XL. Chrono Matt is the first matt high-tech ceramics watch.

Today, ceramics constitutes the largest part of Rado collections, such as Ceramica, Sintra, Integral and True and they become the brand's flagship product.

With its exceptional lightness, its capacity to absorb the body's heat and its hypoallergenic qualities, the timepieces are comfortable to wear as well.

As said by Streule, a watch should not be only beautiful but also comfortable to wear.

Rado Senayan City, Ground Floor * 56, Tel: 7278-1559. www.rado.com

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