Rado Celebrates 40 Years of Tennis at the Mubadala Citi DC Open
Rado’s participation in the Mubadala Citi DC Open has become a late summer tradition. Now in its third year, the descent of tennis fans (and a handful of watch media types) into Rock Creek Park is a sign that summer’s days are numbered, and the US Open prep is becoming serious. On the weekend of this year’s DC Open, you’d be forgiven for thinking summer was never ending. Blisteringly hot and muggy with humidity one minute, drenched in torrential downpours the next, it’s enough to make you wonder why anyone thought our nation’s capital should be built on a swamp in the first place.
Photo courtesy Rado
In any event, the annual tradition that’s been forming over these last few years with Rado extends to the release of a new, limited edition watch. I was fortunate enough to see their latest, the Rado Captain Cook x Tennis Limited Edition, in DC just a few weeks ago. The new LE makes use of the smaller, 39mm Captain Cook case to great effect. This is a compact, easy to wear dive watch that’s on the elegant side of sporty, which seems appropriate for a watch associated with tennis. A dive watch associated with tennis is, of course, a bit incongruous, even taking into consideration the downpours we experienced at this year’s Open. But with the beads-of-rice style bracelet and a smaller form factor, this version of the Captain Cook blends in nicely in a more elevated environment.
There are little design cues throughout this Captain Cook that reference tennis in subtle ways. The seconds hand is tipped in fluorescent yellow, the color of a tennis ball, and minute markers at zero, 15, 30, and 40 are colored in the same manner, a nod to the tennis scoring system. The Captain Cook x Tennis Limited Edition also comes with three textile straps, each colored to represent the different courts used on the pro tennis tours (grass, clay, and hard courts). I like that these little details can be enjoyed outside the context of tennis – it gives the watch a broader appeal than some of these sports oriented limited editions tend to have.
This year is an important year for Rado and tennis, as it marks the 40th anniversary of the brand’s involvement with the sport. As Griffin pointed out in his article about last year’s tennis related Rado release, tennis is not played on a clock, so the role of the official timekeeper of a tennis event is not the same as, for example, an F1 race. Matches, of course, are timed, but there are no time limits. We can surmise, I think, that Rado’s long term commitment to the sport is rooted in culture, as opposed to advances in timekeeping technology itself. Extending that concept out to the DC Open, and acknowledging Rado’s place in the watch community as an accessible brand leaning into the enthusiast sector, their association with this particular tournament makes a lot of sense. The DC Open has been played at Rock Creek Park, a large public park that also features a golf course, hiking, and equestrian trails, since 1969 when the tournament was established by tennis legend Arthur Ashe. His one stipulation for the tournament was that it be played in an accessible, public space, where anyone would be welcome to attend.
Photo courtesy Rado
Those egalitarian values seem to line up well with Rado’s brand identity. I’m a particular fan of their ceramic watches, which offer a level of material ingenuity and avant-garde design that is hard to find under $5,000 (and many of Rado’s watches in this vein come in well under that figure). Similarly, the Captain Cook, in its most straightforward iteration, is about as well made of a dive watch that you’ll find from a Swiss brand in its specific vintage inspired register. They make the kinds of watches you might discover in your early days in the hobby that you always come back to, year after year. Similarly, I imagine many lifelong tennis fans are made at the DC Open, getting their first taste of the sport at a professional level.
The new Rado Captain Cook x Tennis Limited Edition is available now. It’s a run of 1,985 pieces, and carries a retail price of $2,800. Rado
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