The True Phospho is the second in a series of six watches where Rado collaborates with today’s up and coming modern designers across multiple genres. Today, we look at the work of Big-Game.
According to Robert Grosseteste, thirteenth century English philosopher, theologian andmagister scholarium of Oxford University (read: Chancellor), “Light is truly the principle of all beauty”. It is in this principle of light and colour that beauty and ornament of all that is visible becomes illuminated. Thus when Rado teamed up with Big Game to produce the limited edition timepiece in the tradition of their signature design approach, the Rado True Phospho was expected to be emblematic of the metaphysics enunciated by men like Grosseteste, St. Thomas Aquina and Bonaventure – light’s aesthetic importance brought beauty to life as witnessed by countless stained glass murals from the period of the Renaissance.
degàd, Augustin Scott de Martinville, Elric Petit, Grégoire Jeanmonod
A Luminescent Ideal: Rado x Big-Game True Phospho
The award winning trio of designers at Big Gamehave charmed the world with their simple yet optimistic works, often featured as part of the collections of the Museum fuer Gestaltung, the Musée du Grand-Hornu, the Centre Georges Pompidou as well as the MoMA: What we have in the Rado True Phospho is beauty set a glow, a modern interpretation of thirteenth century principles of beauty. Where the manifestation of light is given full attention and play in a house of matt black high-tech ceramic case with matching bracelet. The Rado x Big-Game True Phospho embraces minimalism while simultaneously adopting playful, unexpected maximalist attitudes thanks to the perforated black brass dial which not just allows the myriad of mechanical elements to peek through but also framed with the high tech, Tron-like afterglow of geometrically shaped SuperLumiNova indexes.
“Time is the most precious thing in the world so getting to work on a wristwatch is a unique chance for designers because you’re making something that measures time.” – Augustin Scott de Martinville, one of the trio of Big-Game designers
Indeed, the 40 mm matt black high-tech ceramic watch with glowing face makes a true statement for the measurement of time. With luminiscient indexes casting light from beneath the honeycomb dial, the Rado True Phospho, a limited edition timepieces with Big-Game’s signature approach elevates one of Rado’s most popular watch families. A sweeping dance of light as the seconds hand powered by the ETA C07.631 with 80 hours power reserve sweeps past the world’s most elemental geometrics – the line, the circle and the triangle.
“The two keywords of this project are minimalist and lightness. We decided to approach the design of the watch but taking out rather than adding to the watch.” – Gregoire Jeanmonod, one of the trio of Big-Game designers
Skeletonised movements tend to be a hit or miss when it comes to most watch aficionados but with the Rado x Big-Game True Phospho, both extremes of the spectrum get to find a middle ground – a watch with automatic mechanism display its delicate interplay of gears, wheels and pinions. On the other, the ticking clockwork is kept in shadow until the delicate glow of the Phospho’s indexes happen to cast its luminescence in the direction of its machinations.
“With the True Phospho they succeeded in creating something quintessentially
Rado: simple, beautiful and innovative.” – Rado CEO Matthias Breschan
According to the team at Big-Game, “We like the contrast between the matt black ceramic and the phosphorescent Super-LumiNova coating, this colour is not only beautiful, but also functional, as it allows the wearer to read the time in the dark ” Limited to 1003 pieces, 1000 for the general public and one for each of the designers, the Rado x Big Game True Phospho is characterized by functionality, simple shapes, and a touch of the unexpected – what results is a watch with high distinctive character and innovative, radiant beauty.
Limited to 1003 pieces, the Rado True Phospho features Big-Game’s signature style housed in one of Rado’s most sought-after watch designs. Check out the previous Rado timepiece, the True Blaze featuring Sam Amoia’s signature style. Click to find to out more.
From: Luxuo.
