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The Rado V10K, dubbed the world’s hardest watch and developed by the renowned Swiss watch brand Rado, has been awarded the iF Design Award.CHINA 2005 by an international jury |
SWITZERLAND. The Rado V10K, dubbed the world’s hardest watch and developed by the renowned Swiss watch brand Rado, has been awarded the iF Design Award.CHINA 2005 by an international jury.
The company, part of Swatch group, attributed its success to the clear-cut design of the Rado V10K and the technological innovation of the materials used.
Of nearly 200 products participating in the contest, the Rado V10K was the only watch to have been presented with the popular award. The winning entries had to meet high expectations in design quality, innovation, choice of materials, technical and formal independence and functionality.
Awarded by an international jury consisting of renowned design professionals, the iF award is also a symbol of a company’s commitment to innovation, according to Rado.
The creation of the Rado V10K is a technological milestone in watch history, says Rado. The abbreviation V10K stands for 10,000 Vickers – the maximum on the hardness scale for materials – and the equivalent to the hardness of natural diamond. After years of research, Rado transformed carbon into nanocrystalline diamond particles and make them “˜grow’ onto the watch surface. The result is absolute hardness of 10,000 Vickers and the durability of natural diamond with a coating of 100% High-Tech Diamond on every Rado V10K watch.
The watch case boasts a completely clean-cut form – not even a crown. The crown has been omitted for reasons of design aesthetics. The time can be easily adjusted on the case back – a technical innovation by Rado – by the magnetic contact element integrated into the strap.
Rado CEO Roland Streule said he was delighted about the award. “We are extremely happy to hear that this unique product has again been awarded a design prize. The award proves that innovative design and a distinctive choice of materials like Rado applies with all its novelties are well appreciated and also requested. We are certain that these elements will characterise the products of the future.”
The Rado V10K has already been awarded various internationally renowned design awards. In 2002 the watch received the ‘Good Design Award’ from the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design (USA) and in 2003 the German Design-Center Nordrhine-Westphalia honoured the Rado V10K with the ‘red dot award for outstanding design’.
About Rado
Rado is the worldwide leader in the production of watches with outstanding design and innovative materials. Rado launched, in 1962, the world’s first scratch-proof watch made of hard metal. Some 20 years later, the Swiss watch brand was the first to introduce watches made of scratch-proof high-tech ceramics. The ultimate in scratch-proof watches was presented by Rado in 2002 when the V10K was launched, the first watch made of High-Tech Diamond and as hard and scratch-proof as a genuine diamond.
About the iF design award
Since its inauguration in 1953 by the iF international Forum Design in Germany, the iF design award is a prestigious trademark for outstanding design. For the third time iF gave out the iF Design Award.CHINA, an award especially developed for products which are to be introduced to the Chinese market. The winners of the iF Design Award.CHINA 2005 were honoured during the opening ceremony of the CeBIT Asia exhibition in Shanghai in May 2005.
Details on the Rado V10K, the world’s hardest watch, can be found on www.v10k.com Information about other award-winning Rado watches can be found on www.rado.com
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