Spontaneous  is the best – my first time with ceramic watch.

Probably some of you also catch yourself in a situation in which you have some cash to spend and you are mercilessly devoting it to your whims. Well, I found myself in the situation described by me several weeks ago, when before going to bed I was browsing through the pages, typing hackneyed phrases with well-known watch brands in the search engines of sales portals.

In this way, I got to a very interesting advertisement with rather uninteresting photos, but with an extremely attractive price. The subject of my interest was the Rado True Specchio watch, i.e. a watch whose casing and bracelet are practically 90 percent made of sintered ceramic. The problem was that the seller lived some 430 kilometers from me, and there was no cash on delivery.

But what are your friends for ?! Bartek, my friend who lives in the same city, where the seller, efficiently carried out the entire purchase. Just like me, he has never dealt with watches whose basic building material is ceramics, so after the first contact with this material, he was a bit surprised by the lightness and unusual blackness, which on the one hand is deep, and on the other hand it shines and reflects light beautifully.

I received my watch after two days …

Case

As I mentioned in the introduction, the case is made of sintered ceramic. What draws attention at the first contact with this material is its brilliance. The case literally shines, and the deep blackness only enhances the unique feeling of interacting with the ceramic frit.

The shiny surface of the Rado True Specchio case means that the edges are not as visible as in the case of steel and gold watches. The lack of clear edges causes the watch to optically increase its surface area, and its width, amounting to 41 millimeters, looks more like 42-43 millimeters.

The thickness of the Rado True Specchio case is only 10 millimeters, which makes the watch extremely comfortable to wear and fits perfectly on the wrist, even with a fairly loose fit of the bracelet to the wrist.

At 3 o’clock there is a fairly handy steel crown that works well for changing the time and date. In my opinion, it could also be made of sintered ceramic, then it would fit perfectly with the rest of the case. On the other hand, it has been polished, and the manufacturer seems to have specifically used polished steel to match the equally shiny indices and hands.

The case is water resistant to 30M, which is not an outstanding value, but it will easily protect the movement from accidental splashes. The poor water resistant is probably due to the limitations of the ceramic sinter.

The bottom of the case is closed with a transparent caseback with a ring made of titanium. Thanks to the use of titanium and sintered ceramics, the watch is extremely light and you hardly feel it on the wrist while wearing it. I used to be a fan of quite large-sized watches, the weight of which often exceeded 200 grams. Today, however, I choose models whose case does not exceed 42 millimeters wide and 13 millimeters thick, and the comfort of wearing has become one of my main criteria when buying a watch. In the case of Rado, I didn’t know what to expect, because it is my first watch of this brand, and also the first watch made of such an original material as sintered ceramic. I must admit that I am positively surprised by the visual qualities and the comfort of wearing the Rado True Specchio watch.

Dial

The black of the dial is not as intense as the elements of the case and bracelet. A gentle sunburst makes the dial sparkle with shades of black and gray, depending on the type and angle of the light.

The dial is decorated with simple, polished stainless steel indices in the form of flattened cuboids. The tips of the indexes have been cut at a 45-degree angle, thanks to which they generate additional lighting effects when moving the wrist.

Hours 3, 6, 9, and 12 have dual indices. Additionally, at the indices at 3 o’clock there is a date display with a white painted frame around it.

The simple hands are designed to correspond naturally with the indices. The Rado True Specchio model has no counterweight hands and begins on an axis at the center of the dial. Contrary to appearances, this is not a common arrangement in modern watches.

Below the 12 o’clock indices there is the famous logotype of the anchor that rotates with every movement of the spring barell, and the manufacturer’s name.

Below the axis of the hands, there is information about the type of movement used.

The hands and indices do not contain a single gram of luminescent substance, so reading in complete darkness without an external light source is impossible. An interesting fact, however, is the fact that literally a little bit of light is enough to read the time without any problems. This is due to the mirror surface of the hands and indices and the contrasting blackness.

A big surprise for me was the sapphire glass, which was covered on the inside with a multi-layer anti-reflective coating. There is no information anywhere on this, and it is a thing worth mentioning. The anti-reflective layer is of very good quality, it does not stain the glass blue and purple, and additionally gives the impression of “no glass effect”, characteristic of glasses with double-sided AR.

Bracelet

The bracelet of the Rado True Specchio watch has links made of sintered ceramic. While removing a link is not a particularly complicated task, pressing the pin connecting the links is an extremely difficult task, even for experienced people.

The bracelet does not have micro-regulation, which is a big disadvantage for me. The lack of micro-regulation is influenced by the specificity of the material the bracelet is made of, as well as the type of clasp, the nature of which does not allow its use.

The clasp is made of titanium and has comfortable buttons on both sides, thanks to which we can easily unfasten the bracelet. An interesting fact is, however, an additional movable element that can be unfastened. This solution is a tribute to people with a large hand, who find it difficult to squeeze a bracelet in its standard size.

I was quite surprised by the loosely fitted end links of the bracelet. You get the impression that they fit perfectly with the case, while the links themselves can stand out slightly when moving your wrist. At first I thought it was the fault of too thin spring bars. My doubts, however, were dispelled by my friend watchmaker, who said that this is a special procedure of the manufacturer, which is to eliminate any tensions in the material that could damage or crack the material. This theory makes sense. After his words, I basically stopped noticing this “affliction” of the end links.

The width of the bracelet is 20 millimeters and it does not narrow in any way, which may evoke thoughts about its inconvenient use. Nothing could be more wrong! The material from which it is made makes it almost impossible to feel it on the wrist. The feeling of wearing a Rado True Specchio 41 watch is incomparable to a stainless steel watch, and the bracelet – despite the aforementioned limitations – makes the return to “steel” extremely difficult.

Movement

The Rado True Specchio watch is equipped with a movement called the Rado Caliber 629, which is actually a modified version of the ETA 2892-2A movement. It is a movement that is characterized by an excellent work culture. The time deviation is +/- 1 second a day, which is an outstanding achievement for an automatic movement. I have had the watch for several months and I have not had to adjust the time display even once. The Rado True Specchio and Rolex Datejust are currently my two most accurate watches in my collection.

The movement is mounted on 21 jewels and has a 42-hour power reserve.

The Caliber 629 has a very nice finish. The bridges have been pearled and the standard ETA rotor has been replaced with a black anchor-like element.

Summary

Ever since I’ve been collecting watches, I’ve felt an aversion to black cases and bracelets. Black watches seemed too gloomy and not very versatile – when it comes to matching the watch to the outfit. Spontaneous purchases are characterized by the fact that we rarely analyze a given product. If we like it, or if we feel it will make a good impression on us, we buy it. In my case it was the same, and an additional incentive that made me buy the Rado True Specchio was its attractive price.

The ceramic sinter that the case and bracelet are made of has limitations as in the case of water resistance, which is only 30M. Removing and adding bracelet links is also quite problematic. On the other hand, the comfort of wearing a ceramic watch is incomparable to that of models made of steel. In addition, a shiny coating that makes the watch look luxurious and made of obsidian, a super precise movement, which has been beautifully decorated. These positive features make me stop paying attention to the moving links between the lugs or low water resistance.

Would I buy this watch again knowing the pros and cons of sintered ceramic? Definitely yes!

Tomek

 

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