The wonders of the four seasons expressed through Rado’s mastery of coloured high-tech ceramics.

It is a strange pairing, to say the least. The blooming, verdant splendour of the world’s most beautiful gardens imagined by a watch brand famous for synthesising metal oxides isn’t the most obvious marriage of two worlds. But somehow, within Rado’s sanitised state-of-the-art laboratories that manufacture the world’s most advanced hypoallergenic high-tech ceramics, Mother Nature’s beauty takes shape and form with lively colours and exuberance.

Rado True Thinline x Great Gardens of the World 'Summer'

Introduced in 2017, the True Thinline x Great Gardens of the World collection sprung from Rado’s sponsorship of Grandi Giardini Italiani. A network of over 140 gardens in Italy, Vatican City, and Ticino, Grandi Giardini Italiani boasts a collective history of over 500 years of garden and landscape art – providing a veritable well of inspiration for the Swiss watch company.

Embellished with all manner of garden references, the original collection from 2017 featured coloured ceramic cases that evoke the elements of earth, water, and leaf, while the 2021 series featured delicate jasmine flower motifs on mother-of-pearl dials. This year’s variants, christened ‘The Four Seasons’, eschew their predecessors’ literal depictions of flowers and foliage by embracing an aesthetically more abstract approach, working with colours and beautifully facetted sapphire crystals set atop gradated dials to evoke the passage of time in the gardens.

Rado True Thinline x Great Gardens of the World 'Spring'

Again, Rado’s unmatched know-how with the construction and concoction of colours in the field of high-tech ceramics are properly flexed in the ‘The Four Seasons’ collection. The quartet of timepieces come in shades of powdery rose, soothing yellow, deep olive, and immaculate white to represent spring, summer, fall, and winter, respectively.

The watches’ monobloc high-tech ceramic cases, bracelets’ rounded edges, polished surfaces, and carefully calibrated, uniform shades are a Rado speciality. Although many brands today offer ceramic watches, few can execute them to the same fastidious degree as Rado, especially with cases featuring soft lines, smooth surfaces, and specific tones.

Rado True Thinline x Great Gardens of the World 'Fall'

While each colour conveys everything you need to know about the season it represents, the seasonal theme is elevated by subtly gradated dials that match the colours of the watch cases, as well as facetted sapphire crystals that evoke the individual seasons. ‘Spring’ is endowed with a kaleidoscopic patterned sapphire crystal, ‘Summer’ comes with sunray-like motifs, ‘Fall’ has a leaf-inspired pattern, and the design of ‘Winter’ recalls a snowflake.

Like other True Thinline x Great Gardens of the World models, ‘The Four Seasons’ watches come in 39mm cases and are driven by quartz movements. We would have preferred the watches to feature mechanical movements, but, of course, the quartz calibres help ensure the True Thinline’s svelte 5mm cases.

Rado True Thinline x Great Gardens of the World 'Winter'

Last but not least, although the watches are not limited individually, the True Thinline x Great Gardens of the World ‘The Four Seasons’ is available as a 150-piece collector’s set comprising all four models. So that you, if you really wish to, may dress appropriately for the seasons.

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