The industrial designer Tej Chauhan describes his work as being about "the near future".
His design style, he says, is fantastical. But "not so futuristic that it's intangible".
It's relatable sci-fi, if you will.
Chauhan's brand of “applied futurism” has leant itself to a car tyre designed for Lexus based on Nike's Air Force 1 trainer and a teardrop-shaped Nokia 7600 phone, among other things.
Now the designer has collaborated on a new watch for Rado.
The model is based on the DiaStar, Rado's shaped timepiece from the 1960s originally made from "hardmetal", a composite of ceramic and metal.
For the new design, Chauhan began by looking at “AI futurescapes”.
But then: “I also happened to see a movie which featured a moonbase and some gold space helmets… this became the final inspiration.”
That film in question was the 2019 sci-fi thriller Ad Astra, starring Brad Pitt as a 22nd Century astronaut who ventures into space in search of his lost father (what could possibly go wrong?).
Ad Astra’s costume designer also shared Chauhan’s vision for a realistic portrayal of the near future, kitting out Pitt and his companions in plausibly authentic spacesuits and then jazzing them up with memorable, reflective gold-tinted visors.
Chauhan and Rado originally teamed up in 2021 on a version of the watchmaker's True Square, a line defined by the brand's signature "rounded square" case.
The Rado True Square x Taj Chauhan came with a bold matte yellow dial, an oval-shaped case and offbeat typography.
That design story continues with the latest model, the Rado DiaStar Original x Tej Chauhan.
Rado's DiaStar debuted in 1962, when it had the distinction of being the world’s first scratch-resistant watch.
It was marketed with a ballsy advertising campaign that featured someone taking a metal file to the front of the watch, above the legend “SPACE AGE MATERIAL SCRATCH PROOF” and the promise “Unconditionally guaranteed 3 years”.
The Rado DiaStar Original x Tej Chauhan is a 38mm x 45mm automatic model that comes in a polished yellow gold coloured PVD case, with a matt black concave dial featuring a silver and blue printed minute track and a grey, pillow-shaped rubber strap.
The date appears in a very bright red, in Chauhan’s own font, as does the day of the week, with each one appearing in a different colour, representing, the designer says, “the way I feel the week”. (An alternate disc setting displays the date in white.)
As per its experiments with scratch-proof ceramic, Rado badges itself as the “master of materials”, and the new watch is built from Ceramos, a proprietary material that combines 90 per cent ceramic with 10 per cent metal alloy, meaning it is both lightweight and even more resistant to scratches.
“I wanted this design to be its own special character, but also related to True Square,” Chauhan says.
“The two most obvious DNA elements are what we like to refer to—for obvious reasons—the party-time index, and the use of my typeface.”
“We strategically use shape, colour and material to bring joy to people. The very first concept proposed some atypical colours—including a very specific green. To develop it would have meant delaying the project, which is when we began exploring the gold. That green turned out to be a fortuitous obstacle."
Until relatively recently Brad Pitt was an ambassador for the watch brand Breitling.
Who among us wouldn’t like to see him dig out his old space suit and visor and get involved with this?
