One of the interesting things about the cheap replica watches collection is that once you branch out of the field of better travel, you will find small islands of various designs and mechanical innovations. For me, for various reasons (more on this in a minute), it is also one of the most interesting watches of the late 20th century. It not only illustrates the change of taste, but also involves the development of technology and How it affects our expectations for watches until today.
That watch is Rado DiaStar. The DiaStar is probably one of the most memorable old-fashioned Rado watches-the company brought out the first in 1962, in (among other things) the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which debuted at the first glance at the first doctorate, and is a very watch Time-There are (and there are) many different models, but ur-DiaStar has an immediately recognizable shape. The case is opaque and the frame is a round dial with shield-like metal around the dial.
A shield-like appearance is appropriate, because the original DiaStar is the world’s first scratch-resistant watch. Before DiaStar, there were basically two types of watch cases: a gold case and a stainless steel case. There was a strict separation between a more formal case (sometimes a gold case or a platinum case) and a stainless steel sports watch. Experiments with other materials are sometimes conducted-some manufacturers sometimes make watches with aluminum cases-but usually, your choice is steel or precious metals, mainly gold.
The reason why DiaStar appeared is because the idea of the entire sports watch has really risen (Blancpain and Rolex’s first dedicated diving watch has been around for ten years), and their basis is to make an affordable fake luxury watches that you can throw to it. thing. The case is made of a material that has never been used for watchmaking: tungsten carbide.
Tungsten carbide is a mixture of tungsten and carbon. The former is also called “wolfram” by tin miners, and the latter finds annoying additional presence in the tin ore veins. “Tungsten” means “heavy stone” (it is named because it is a dense heavy metal), and the first tungsten-containing steel was patented in 1858. Tungsten-containing superhard tool steel revolutionized the machinery industry, and in 1962, Rado used this material for the first time in the watch industry to use a strong case.
The manufacturing process involves taking out powdered tungsten carbide and pressing it in a vacuum furnace at a pressure of about 1000 atmospheres. This process is called sintering and fuse the particles together. The result is a very hard, very durable material with extremely high abrasion resistance in daily use, so that Rado can promote it as “the world’s first scratch-resistant watch” and stand behind it . The most well-known DiaStar has a gold finish and usually has a lively, very three-dimensional dial – you can generally recognize them at antique watch sellers, not only because it has an unmistakable appearance, but also because even after passing After four or five years, they are generally still completely new.
The great thing about DiaStar is that – contrary to what you might expect from a time-specific design at first glance – the company still manufactures “The Original” under that name and uses more than 20 iterations of quartz and mechanical watches. Now, we all know that design is not for everyone, but I find this watch to have irresistible significance-in an era when true material and design innovations are still very scarce, this is a remarkable innovation. DiaStar is one of the earliest watches I can think of, it really got rid of the tyranny of round case and lug idiom, and in some way and material has achieved unprecedented attempts.
In the version we have seen, the price of the original version is $1250, and there is no doubt that this price is definitely good value for money. Of course, this is a polarized light design, but look at it this way: Swiss Rado watches have been continuously involved in material innovation since 1962 and continue to lead the industry in high-tech ceramics like, then, its “high-tech ceramics”, This is a sintered ceramic-metal composite material that can be found in many of its modern timepieces, such as the DStar automatic chronograph. This is a very special niche market in the history of watchmaking, but DiaStar originally represented fifty years of continuity in design and materials, coupled with true innovation, which is extremely rare. That’s why we chose it – DiaStar Original, which is the original value of this form in this form.
Rado DiaStar Original, 35 mm automatic stainless steel/PVD coated hard metal/titanium metal; sapphire crystal; Super LumiNova; water resistant 30 m;
Rado DStar automatic chronograph, 44 mm automatic chronograph plasma high-tech ceramic/titanium; sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating; transparent sapphire bottom cover; water resistant 100 m;