Editor's Picks
Rado Captain Cook: Marching to its Own Beat
Editor's Picks
Rado Captain Cook: Marching to its Own Beat
Today, SCUBA diving kits are no longer a rare sight, but it wasn’t until the late 1950s that diving as an activity was democratised beyond the military, scientific/exploration communities. From relying on hand-me-downs from the armed services, wetsuits for civilian use entered the market in the later part of the 1950s and the YMCA started the USA’s first dive instruction program for regular folks in 1959. Cousteau’s documented exploits provided the inspiration, access to dive gear and instruction lit the match for an explosion of interest in recreational diving that flowered in the 1950s and ’60s.
Choices in 1962
In an age before dive computers, what divers also needed was a wristwatch with the reliability, water resistance and accuracy to track the amount of air left in their tanks. When the Rado Captain Cook was released in 1962, choices facing the amateur diver would include the ultimate in tool watches, the Rolex Submariner ref. 5512 or its friendlier-priced sibling the Tudor Oyster Prince Submariner ref. 7928; the grandaddy of dive watches, the Blancpain 50 Fathoms which inked the blueprint for many a dive watch to follow since its introduction in 1953; Omega Seamaster 300 which Omega launched as a trio with the Speedmaster and Railmaster in 1957; and the Longines ref. 7042, one of a long list of makes that used the Super Compressor case that held sway through the 1960s, typified by signature internal rotating timing bezel and twin crowns at ‘2’ and ‘4’.
Rado Captain Cook
On the other hand, the Captain Cook was a relatively svelte 35.5mm, and didn’t look very different from most dive watches until one looked closer. The domed acrylic crystal featured a magnifier over a window at ‘3’ which displayed the date, red-on-white. The Rolex Submariner would have to wait seven more years to get a date display, in the ref. 1680 of 1969. Captain Cook’s black dial bore the boldly lumed hour markers customary of dive watches, with broad hands (arrow-tipped for the minutes, or sometimes, the hour) aiding legibility. Where the minute track usually sits on the perimeter of the dial, in the Captain Cook, the minutes were marked in black on the silvered chapter ring beyond the dial. Also, in place of a brand logo that was printed or applied, Rado’s was a little fancier — articulated, so that the little anchor on the dial moved as the wearer swung his hand, though it was not mated to the A Schild AS1701 self-winding movement beating within. Framing all this – domed crystal and quirky black dial– was a bezel that not only stood out for not having a lumed point at 0/60, it also sloped inwards towards the crystal, daisy-like.