MAKING THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE
In 2017, Rado collaborated with the visionary Japanese fashion designer Kunihiko Morinaga to create a limited edition timepiece that blended the brand’s renowned mastery of materials with the colour-changing technology for which the avant-garde designer is so well known. Rado and Morinaga have announced the release of their latest shared masterpiece, the Rado True Square x Kunihiko Morinaga Special Edition watch.
It’s no surprise that the new Rado True Square x Kunihiko Special Edition watch is visually breathtaking. It features a squarish polished black monobloc high-tech ceramic case and crown. The black PVD sandblasted titanium case back is fitted with a sapphire crystal with the metalized words: KUNIHIKO MORINAGA SPECIAL EDITION.
The transparent dial is one of the watch’s defining elements. In true Kunihiko Morinaga fashion, it has a photochromic treatment, which means that it changes colour according to the available light. The designer explains, “The intent was to add colour and take it away. I tried to capture the ethereal nature of time in the design by integrating a photochromic lens that changes colour based on ultraviolet light.”
And it works! When it is exposed to sunlight, the True Square’s dial darkens. But as the sun goes down – as it invariably does – the dial shade evolves into grey and finally becomes transparent, revealing the Rado calibre R734 at the heart of the watch. The sight of the automatic mechanical movement is worth waiting for. It is fitted with an antimagnetic Nivachron™ balance spring and, like the movement holder, features circular grain decoration.
In stunning contrast to the eye-catching dial, the rhodium-coloured hour and minute hands have a white veneer and are coated with white Super-LumiNova®, which makes them legible regardless of the position of the sun.
The Rado True Square x Kunihiko Morinaga is presented on a polished black high-tech ceramic bracelet secured by a titanium three-fold clasp. The watch, which is water resistant to 5 bar (50m), is delivered with a Special Edition certificate.
The Rado True Square x Kunihiko Morinaga Special Edition is the result of a natural partnership between an innovative brand and a disruptive fashion visionary who are dedicated to blending the boundaries between technology and design.
About Kunihiko Morinaga
Kunihiko Morinaga has been referred to as a “fashion scientist” and a “fashion poet”. The disruptive Tokyo-born designer was born in 1980 and graduated from Waseda University and Vantan Design Academy. He launched his own brand, ANREALAGE, in 2003. His numerous honours include the Avant-garde Grand Prix award at Gen Art in New York in 2005 and the 29th Mainichi Fashion Grand Prix for the best new designer in 2011. Consistently celebrated for innovations that seem to be touched with a bit of alchemy, Morinaga and ANREALAGE have generated renewed interest with clothes that feature colour-changing photochromic properties. In other words, the clothing changes colour with sunlight or ultraviolet light. His groundbreaking approach was on full display during Beyoncé’s record-setting Renaissance tour. The superstar took centre stage in a white bell-sleeved ANREALAGE coat that dazzled with kaleidoscopic colour when it was exposed to UV light – a perfect expression of Kunihiko Morinaga’s unique genius. He is fascinated by what he describes as coexisting science technology and human technology. He says, “I am interested in making clothes by crossing over these two different technologies. I think that in any time period, it is important to maintain a close relationship with the technology of that specific age.” Rado, a brand known for its mastery of materials and its evolving cutting-edge technologies, is proud to work with one of the fashion world’s most exciting visionaries.
About High-Tech Ceramic
Chronologically-speaking, high-tech ceramic was first introduced by Rado in 1986. Its sensuous feel, durability, scratch resistance and surprising light weight, quickly conquered the hearts of watch enthusiasts the world over. Though related in some respects to more common forms of ceramics we all know, hightech ceramic is truly a product of advanced science. Under highly exacting conditions, extremely pure and finely calibrated powders of aluminium oxide, zirconium oxide and silicon nitride with perfectly uniform grain sizes, are shaped into a particular form then baked at high temperature to create an object or a watch case of the desired dimensions and properties. New methods developed by Rado involve the use of a plastic carrier medium mixed with the mineral powders, to allow injection into precision moulds at pressures around 1000 bar. Once cooled, the pieces are removed from their parent mould and the carrier agent dissolved in a standard chemical solvent process, prior to a final sintering phase at 1450°C. This precisely controlled sintering is what makes possible the extraordinary level of density and hardness of High-Tech Ceramic, over regular ceramic. The procedure is true rocket-science territory, as the dimensions of the first moulded elements shrink during sintering; the particles tighten up as porosity disappears and precise calculations must take into account this important change of around 23% in the dimensions. The reward is a case that now stands at 1,250 on the Vickers scale and is ready for final diamond-tool machining and finishing, into an impressive Rado timepiece.