For years now the Rado Captain Cook collection has been favoured by the wristwatch enthusiast sect, offering the perfect combination of refined design, solid build quality, and historical pedigree to be positioned as a solid alternative to the more typical and omnipresent divers that currently saturate the market. From ultra-compact to more beastly units, whether in steel, bronze, two-tone steel and gold, or the many colourways of high-tech ceramic on offer, the Captain Cook lineup has not been short on diversity. That said, this latest combination is precisely what the collection was lacking: a dive chronograph in high-tech ceramic.
I’ve been in “camp Rado” for some time now, ever since acquiring a Captain Cook Bronze with a green dial, but I’ve perpetually been tempted by the appeal of a ceramic case and bracelet. I’d tried several, and the feel of the material is simply something you won’t get out of conventional metals. Both its weight and its heat transfer properties give ceramic watches a distinct feel when on-wrist, and the use case for the material in a diver chronograph is hard to argue with.
Dive chronograph are inherently chunky by nature; it’s an expected byproduct of increased water resistance and the size needed to fit an automatic chronograph movement. Case in point, I challenge you to find me an “ultra-thin” chronograph that gets anywhere near dive watch specifications. As we’ve seen with other Captain Cook models that are offered in both steel and high-tech ceramic, this new model gains 1.4 millimetres in overall thickness when compared to its steel and bronze counterparts. Will you actually notice it? No. Whether a watch is 14.8 or 16.2 mm thick, it’ll sit just as proudly on your wrist — and that’s the point.
In contrast, where you’ll notice a real difference is in overall heft. There’s a 21 gram difference in mass between this new model and its all-steel counterpart, and the difference is immediately apparent when strapping this new model on. It’s by no means a lightweight, but the reduced heft is welcome nonetheless. It’s heavy enough to still feel ever-present without being burdensome. Think middleweight knit sweater in contrast to a heavy wool.
Beyond this crucial material change, it’s also worth noting that Rado changed up its chronograph complication layout with the new release as well. For the first time, the Captain Cook Chronograph has three subdials rather than two, adding an hour counter to its chronograph functionality. Displayed using an open-track layout that’s a touch more subtle than its running seconds and chronograph minutes counters, the hour counter at six o’clock brings added functionality to the watch without adding too much clutter. For some, choosing between a 2-register and 3-register chronograph is a matter of aesthetic preference, however for those (like myself) who use their chronographs regularly, this addition is a welcome one.
With this string of improvements over prior versions, it’s not hard to be sold on Rado’s latest, though there is a cost that comes with all this. The high-tech ceramic Captain Cook Chronograph arrives with a sticker price of $8,400 CAD, which is a significant jump over the $5,800 for its steel sibling. Of course, producing a full ceramic case and bracelet takes more work than machining and finishing equivalent steel components, so we expected a gap here. It’s also nowhere near as big of a jump as we see from Rado’s Swatch Group sister brand Omega, whose Seamaster 300m Diver has a price difference of $4,700 between steel and ceramic models — and that’s on references fitted on rubber straps rather than machined bracelets.
Though there’s always some debate to be had about whether a full ceramic watch is worth the added expense, in the case of the Captain Cook Chronograph the benefits are quite easy to see. This isn’t a “it’s ceramic for the sake of it” situation like we’ve seen elsewhere in the industry, but rather a practical application of the material by a brand that’s specialized in its use for decades. If a chunky dive chronograph is on your wants list, this is a great place to start the hunt.
Learn more about the Rado Captain Cook Chronograph in high-tech ceramic here.
