Firing up our horlogerie time machines, we’re going back to 1985, Switzerland. Upon the Swiss Open’s clay courts in Gstaad with 50,000 in attendance, Swedish ace Joakim Nyström won his second consecutive singles title — RADO witnessed this historic feat.
Uniting the worlds of watchmaking and tennis, 1985’s Swiss Open was the first internationally recognized tournament sponsored by RADO. Soon after, RADO’s support snowballed with competition sponsorships from Germany, Japan, Australia, and South Africa, all the way to North America. By the late ‘90s, RADO sponsored 40 major tournaments, becoming the number one watch sponsor in international tennis, reinforcing its prominence through courtside clocks. Honoring this match made on Gstaad’s clay courts in 1985 and a legacy of aces, RADO unveils a Captain Cook x Tennis Limited Edition — Capturing watchmaking and tennis’s eternally shared commitment to technical excellence, split-second accuracy, and sheer innovation. Bearing a multitude of tennis cues, this commemorative piece also boasts three distinct textile straps as an ode to the sport’s emblematic courts.
WatchDNA’s team had the honour of personally trying on the new Captain Cook x Tennis Limited Edition at the 2025 Glory Sports Summit, co-sponsored by RADO. Exploring the interaction of sports and culture in Canada’s passionately progressing landscape, RADO’s tennis-inspired booth brought enthusiasts up close with the new limited-edition model and other signature collections.
Fusing RADO’s vintage diver aesthetics with functionality and tennis-esque details, the Tennis Limited Edition is housed in a robust 39-millimetre stainless steel case that’s water resistant to 300 metres. The bezel, graced by a brushed plasma ceramic finish, is engraved with white lacquered markers and a triangle marker at twelve o’clock, all dipped in Super-LumiNova.
The dial features a striking ruthenium-to-white gradient. Upon close inspection, you’ll notice four dark yellow Super-LumiNova dots at three, six, eight, and twelve o’clock, referencing the tennis scoring system (15, 30, 40, game). With rhodium-hued indexes and hands dipped in Super-Luminova, the seconds hand features a tennis-ball inspired tip. On the caseback, we see a “Limited Edition, One Out Of 1,985” engraving that circles a textured depiction of tennis’s trio of court types. Inside, the RADO’s automatic Calibre R763 boasts an 80-hour power reserve, operating at 21,600 vibrations/hour, and features a date complication.
Upon purchase, the Captain Cook x Tennis Limited Edition arrives with a brushed and polished beads-of-rice stainless steel bracelet. However, the tennis aces don’t end here. RADO equips each piece with three extra NATO-style textile straps — blue for hard courts, orange for clay, and green for grass. Limited to 1,985 pieces, directly nodding to the inaugural Swiss Open.
