In partnership with Rado
It's perhaps paradoxical to describe a watch brand as timeless, but when it comes to Rado, it's hard to find a word more fitting.
For forty years now, the Swiss watchmaker has been crafting pieces that resist time — both metaphorically and materially. It began in 1986, when Rado became the first watchmaker in the world to work with high-tech ceramic in series, introducing its still-iconic Integral collection. The new material not only looked different, but it behaved differently, too.
Smooth, light, and resistant to scratches and wear, it challenged the idea that a luxury timepiece had to be delicate. Instead, with the Integral, beauty became permanent. Simply put, when Rado launched the Integral, it wasn’t just introducing a new watch, so much as proposing a new relationship to time. The watch didn’t age in the way others did. Its high-tech ceramic links retained their surface and their lustre. Where metal softens, scratches, and marks the passing years, ceramic remains.
Four decades on, that same material philosophy remains central to Rado’s identity. To mark this milestone anniversary, the watchmaker is revisiting the design that started it all, with the Integral 40-Year Anniversary Edition — a watch that's both archival and forward-facing. It carries the signature codes of the original model, but refines them through Rado’s ongoing innovations in ceramic and construction.
The idea of a surface untouched by time has became central to Rado’s identity more broadly. Over decades, the brand has expanded its ceramic language. And arguably one of the most exciting new additions to Rado's offering is the True Square. Where the Integral is defined by integration — case, bracelet, and crystal flowing as one continuous form — the True Square is more architectural. Its geometry is precise, with deliberate lines anchored by a monobloc high-tech ceramic case that feels almost impossibly seamless.
Part of the True Square's appeal lies in another of Rado’s paradoxes: a material engineered under extreme heat and pressure that nevertheless feels intimate on the skin. High-tech ceramic is warm to the touch within moments, adapting to the wearer in a way that softens its technological origins. In other words, it doesn’t just resist time, but distance.
The True Square leans into that intimacy in more ways than one. In open-heart variations, the mechanisms that are typically hidden beneath the dial are partially exposed. Think of it as an invitation to create an enduring emotional connection to your watch – to enjoy the living, pulsing mechanics of time that are constantly ticking.
PHOTOGRAPHY Sam Armstrong
FASHION Hannah Cooper
MODEL Shaq @ Priscillas
HAIR Keiren Street @ AP—REPS
MAKEUP Isabella Schimid
PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT Nick
STYLIST’S ASSISTANT Koby Dulac-Daley
