Lightness is more than just a state of mind. Rado has taken lightness to new heights with its True Thinline collection, a series of timepieces that are light in both look and feel. Each piece is ultra-minimal, with restrained lines and ultra-slim profiles that offer unmatched visual lightness – the slimmest watches Rado has ever produced.
They’re also physically light, crafted from a signature high-tech ceramic that’s one of the lightest materials used in luxury watchmaking, 2.5 times lighter than 18K gold, even while it offers 10 times the hardness. Although they look light enough to float away, they are as durable and scratch-resistant as any of Rado’s high-tech ceramic designs.
To present the collection, Rado turned to Lidewij Edelkoort, an international trend forecaster who has remarked on the contemporary design scene’s “quest for lightness” – whether it is a case of streamlining and simplifying, as with ceramics, or imbuing objects with an ethereal, floating quality. “Moderation and restraint are requested today,” Edelkoort explains. “Modesty becomes a philosophy that goes beyond simplicity and minimalism, becoming another way of life made of essential choices with the planet and society in mind.”
With that philosophy in mind, Rado unveiled Edelkoort’s exhibition, Designing Lightness, earlier this year in Basel. The show featured an all-white space filled with new and classic design works that seemed ready to take flight, pairing them with True Thinline watches to illustrate the philosophy of lightness pervading contemporary design.
Among the objets d’art Edelkoort selected – from gossamer fabrics, smooth porcelain, and draped, quilted or gently curved materials – were Patrick Jouin’s pioneering 3-D printed Solid chair, Peter Donders’ 12-kilogram carbon-fibre C-Bench, and Simon Naouri’s deftly wrought ceramic Crease pendants. The carefully selected items highlight the Rado collections’ three colourways: white, black, and a unique plasma-carburated grey finish that looks like gleaming metal, but is in fact Rado’s far lighter high-tech ceramic.
“Design becomes portable and wearable,” Edelkoort says of the trend. “Featherweight fabrics are clothing the body, and thin sober watches stretch into infinity. Material is the message and mindfulness is the movement.”
This content was published by Azure on behalf of Rado.
Watch more of Rado’s Lightness Gallery, highlighting the True Thinline Collection:
