Captain Cook Hong Kong Limited Edition
Rado Captain Cook Hong Kong Limited Edition
URBAN EXHILARATION, PENTHOUSE VIBES
Created in celebration of the ultimate modern metropolis, the Captain Cook Hong Kong Limited Editon instantly captures the allure of the city’s iconic skyline. With a shadowy aesthetic, punctuated with colour, it feels like a skyscraper reflected in the jet-black waters of Hong Kong harbour at night.
And just like a skyscraper, this dramatic showpiece in matt black makes a clear declaration of confidence, charisma and success. Its monochromatic aesthetic marks a new direction for the Captain Cook High-Tech Ceramic Skeleton, already a range that exudes rugged, sporty ambition, but now bringing a new interpretation of power and understated excess to the table.
Skyscraper credentials
One of the piece’s key features has distinct high-rise energy: the skeletonised watch’s intricate mechanics are on display, yet are subtly disguised by a black-tinted sapphire crystal. Unless you’re the wearer, with the luxury of examining its workings in detail whenever you like, glimpsing them is like getting a peek into a penthouse from a neighbouring building during golden hour, just before the light changes.
But it’s on the sapphire case back that the watch’s most overt tribute to the city’s tall buildings is found: a metallised abstraction of Hong Kong Island’s skyline, as seen from Kowloon (again, this is a pleasure reserved for the wearer). Hong Kong boasts the most skyscrapers in the world, and some of its most famous buildings – such as the Bank of China Tower and Two International Finance Centre – are instantly recognisable. Also on the reverse, an engraving reads: ‘HONG KONG EDITION, ONE OUT OF 88’. The number of limited-edition pieces was chosen as it symbolises good luck in Chinese culture.
A shared spirit of innovation
Today, Hong Kong is known for its ever-evolving, innovative spirit – while forever keeping one eye on the past. The daily interplay of modern life and ancient heritage is, in fact, a defining characteristic of the city. In the busy harbour, traditional junks cross paths with superyachts; on land, ancient temples and colonial buildings rub shoulders with modern architecture; in everyday situations, revered cultural beliefs thrive alongside an embrace of modern science and engineering and an insatiable appetite for the digital age.
Rado’s watches similarly blend old and new with a sense of reinvention. The Captain Cook Hong Kong Limited Editon is a perfect example of this approach – and a metaphor for the pace and progress of Hong Kong itself. This is Swiss watchmaking tradition, refined over centuries, now reimagined for the 21st century, with modern materials and contemporary style.
Dive into the darkness
The timepiece’s case, crown and bracelet are in matt black high-tech ceramic, while a turning bezel – featuring an anti-fingerprint insert and markers in relief – lends tonal texture. Next, black gold indexes and hands stand out in the dial for their polished finish. The hour and minute hands are filled with black SuperLuminova® tips that glow blue, the second hand features a red tip filled with white Super-Luminova® and the Rado moving anchor symbol revolves on a synthetic ruby backplate. Against the blackness, these bursts of colour add to that skyscraper-at-night feel.
Behind, the skeletonised movement – featuring an 80-hour power reserve – is presented on nickel-coloured plates and bridges. Contained beneath that black-tinted sapphire crystal, its mechanical complexity is like a secret hidden in plain sight, with some components in subtly contrasting colours that make for extra discoverable details. On the case back, the metallised Hong Kong skyline is beautifully rendered as a minimalistic black-and-white line drawing.
This Hong Kong Limited Edition is a darkly seductive timepiece that moves the needle on the Captain Cook range, as modern luxury is expressed through the lens of cultural dynamism and architectural bravado.
About High-Tech Ceramic
High-tech ceramic truly embodies Rado’s experience and status as Master of Materials. Not only is it a material of astonishing durability, with remarkable scratch-resistant characteristics, but it is also beautifully light and silky to touch, with the ability to quickly match a wearer’s body temperature, so it feels like an extension of themselves. That's why we say, ‘Feel it!’
High-tech ceramic was first introduced by Rado in 1986 following extensive research and development, and can only be produced under exacting conditions. The process starts with extremely pure and finely calibrated mineral powders of zirconium oxide, which are mixed with a specially developed plastic carrier medium and injected into precision moulds at pressures of around 1,000 bar. The moulds are baked, then allowed to cool and the plastic carrier agent dissolved chemically. The ceramic forms are then heated again, this time to 1,450°C. This precisely controlled sintering stage causes powdered particles to fuse together, resulting in a density and hardness that far exceeds regular ceramic. The reward is a material that stands at 1,250 on the Vickers scale and which can be machined and finished, using diamond tools, ready to be assembled into a Rado timepiece.