A discussion with Rado CEO Adrian Bosshard

Adrian Bosshard, the CEO of Rado since July 2020, embodies the brand's forward-looking and open-minded ethos. His deep commitment, extensive experience, and passion for the Swiss watch industry are evident in his leadership. Today, under his firm and positive guidance, Rado is standing out through innovative designs, cutting-edge materials, unique collaborations, and distinctive style statements. We took the opportunity to speak to him about the new location, Ji Chang-wook and the DiaStar when he was in the capital of Malaysia recently to launch the new Rado boutique in Pavilion KL.
<ul>
 <li>Congratulations on the monumental new boutique. Can you share with us what can we expect when we enter the new boutique?</li>
</ul>
I was really absolutely impressed with the crowd! We&rsquo;ve had so many events with celebrities, but never on this level. It&rsquo;s great for the brand and also Pavilion. There are many other brands that can actually learn from this experience. And you know what is important for us? We know quite well the Malaysian market. The Malaysian customers, they like the DiaStar. They like its unique design. They like golden-coloured, scratch-resistant timepieces. And in the end, you know, everything went perfectly. And now, we are very, very humbled and proud about it.
For us, in a boutique, the hero is always the product. The whole environment, the features and the materials we are using must be in line. As such, inside, you will really feel the difference of the Rado brand. And of course, an also very important element is the people at the point of sale who can take advantage of their knowledge so that the customer gets the feeling of the brand and also gets the Rado difference, its spirit and the DNA of the brand.
<ul>
 <li>We are also very happy to see the DiaStar back in the highlight. We have always admired the unique look of the watch. Rado is courageous enough to bring back the DiaStar even with a skeleton. Please share with us the concept behind this and how it became reality.</li>
</ul>
You know, the DiaStar is an icon of the watch industry. It&rsquo;s not only an icon for Rado. It&rsquo;s a design that no one else has. We have created this design and it&rsquo;s been decades that this design is a huge success. It&rsquo;s a huge success in many countries in the world and especially in Malaysia. When I started in Rado, I said, it's the most iconic piece in the whole collection. And I wanted to give this beautiful collection new input. So, we put our efforts into adapting the size, using new materials, and, of course, using the most high-end movements inside. As a result, we created the case in a slightly adapted size and proportions. We use Ceramos which has the same features as our high-tech ceramic. And this means that we can also create it in platinum, rose or yellow gold colour. It&rsquo;s visual is slightly different in high tech ceramic, but they share the features - lightness, scratch resistance and wearer-friendly. Today with the DiaStar, every single piece we produce is sold out immediately. We have to ramp up the production because the production of these pieces in Ceramos is much more complicated than in hard metal.
<ul>
 <li>Rado always creates fantastic designer collaborations. Are we going to see more of this and is it the direction of the company to focus on designer collaborations?</li>
</ul>
As you have nicely remarked, we had in the past, always done collaborations with designers in order to give to creative persons the opportunity to put their finger prints on a high-end Swiss brand like Rado. We had collaborations with Alfredo H&auml;berli who had created our anniversary piece. And this year, we had also had a collaboration with Le Corbusier to create, also a ceramic timepiece that we launched in Paris two months ago. So, for the next year, we definitely have more surprises with designers. I would like to keep some surprise for you in 2024, but for sure, we have spectacular designs waiting for you. There will be one piece early in the year and another in the second part of the year.

Rado CEO Adrian Bosshard

<ul>
 <li>Rado, as a brand, has always achieved a great balance between the releases for men's and ladies&rsquo; watches. What are your thoughts on the exploding women's market today?</li>
</ul>
We are very proud that we can say we have around 50-50% share of the gents&rsquo; and ladies&rsquo; markets. And we have also a lot of products that are unisex. Today, more and more women are wearing big watches. We see success with the launch of the upgraded Centrix collection as we have a huge community of ladies who discovered all the features and the elegance and the beauty of the Rado Centrix. On one side, there are very elegant lady watches, and on the other very masculine ones.
<ul>
 <li>Can you share how Rado came to choose Ji chang-wook as your ambassador?</li>
</ul>
First of all, we know our brand is already well known in Southeast Asia in the target group of 35 and older. But we also wanted to attract the younger generation with our products. We wanted to transfer the advantage and the uniqueness of Rado to young customers who are not fan of Rado in the past. Ji is a person who is sharing exactly the same values as Rado. This means the precision, determination and passion for the things he is doing. He fits the role perfectly. When we discovered him last year, we found that he is a passionate and professional guy and really someone who takes his job very seriously.
<ul>
 <li>What are your thoughts on the market in Malaysia today and, moving forward, how do you intend to continue engaging your fans and customers?</li>
</ul>
Of course, the key element for our products is to always surprise the customer with something new that has an additional value for them. We are masters at this because we have not only the opportunity to develop the movements, we have also the opportunity to develop the design and the materials. For marketing activities today, we need to look at the wow effect. This is important. Also, when a customer enters our store, he's discovering the spirit of the brand, the strength of the brand, the DNA of the brand. And he gets inspired from our very professional, well-educated front-line staff.

Checking in with Rado’s CEO

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