Headed over to the Niagara outlet mall yesterday to look for some apparel for our upcoming Italy trip. Agreed to go with the wife because I'd recently read about the Hour Passion shop, and hoped to sneak in a visit. It's a Swatch Group-owned store for selling discount stock of Swatch, Tissot, Hamilton, Balmain, Rado, Mido and Longines watches. No higher-end stuff, though (e.g. Omega, Breguet, Glashutte, etc.)
I've got a few Longines watches on my list if the price is right (Zulu, sector dial, Big Eye, various Heritage models), so headed straight for that section. They had a couple nicer Heritage models (35mm Conquest, 38mm Silver Arrow), but neither was quite right. Otherwise, selection was limited, mostly the cheap and anonymous-looking polished or gold dress watches that only seem to serve to dilute the Longines brand. They did have a few of the Legend Divers, but it's not to my taste.
So we headed over to the Hamilton section, and I noticed a couple Spirit of Liberty variants, which is a watch I've always loved the look of as a handsome take on a slightly casual dresser, a great office watch when office attire is rolled-cuff Oxfords and chinos. It's on for a reasonable $800, down from the sticker price of $1370. I did have one offered to me at $1200 without prompting at Mariani in Oakville a couple years ago, which was still too rich for a watch with details I don't love. But at $800, suddenly those details get less important...
So I leave the one I like in the tray, and go take a wander just in case something else catches my eye. And something in a Rado case absolutely does. It's a Swatch brand, like Certina and Balmain, that I largely ignore beyond the overpriced Captain Cook diver, as most models seem to be weird rounded designs with dark tinted metals and are very much not to my taste.
But this model R32254025 (rolls right off the tongue)is another casual dresser with more than a hint of Aqua Terra design language. Silver sunray dial combined with blued triangle markers and hands, and it feels great on the wrist. Not too sparkly, but the indices catch the light with enough flashes that it feels sharp enough to also wear with a suit:
Sticker is somewhere around $3600, store price is 30% off that, and turns out that particular Rado case is marked down even further to over 60% off. When the wife pipes up that my birthday is soon and that would make a nice present, the sales guy knows his job is done.
The 42mm case (wears much smaller) is Hyperchrome, a ceramic material that Rado seems to have built their entire niche under the Swatch umbrella around. Apparently it's almost impossible to scratch, but I'm warned that a hard enough whack can actually chip the case. Weird. Other highlights are the dial and indices are gorgeous, case is decently thin at 10mm, and I love the strap that fills the lug area like a bracelet, which also comes with a nice signed deployant clasp. Negatives are the strap costs over $400 to replace (it's not *that* nice) and a mid-tier Rado version of Swatch's ubiquitous Powermatic 80 movement, which is not smooth. At least it can be regulated and doesn't have plastic parts.
Definitley an unexpected one, but it scratches a lot of itches. Only problem is I've got my eye on a used Montblanc for a very good price with a very similar vibe, so I may end up scratching that itch twice...
www.grand-seiko.com
