Rado presents a winning combination of performance and attitude as timekeeper of some of the world’s leading tennis championships
(Lengnau, Switzerland, June 2012) – Rado is putting high-performance timing technology through its paces on the tennis court this year, as timekeeper of some of the world’s highest ranking international tournaments. Resistance, endurance and breaking records top the agendas of the Swiss watch brand and of the fast-paced racquet sport enjoyed by millions of players and spectators around the world.
Rado CEO Matthias Breschan comments, “Rado has a long-standing relationship with tennis that started 20 years ago. It is a sport that perfectly embodies key values of our brand, heritage and products, including relentless determination, a proven love of pushing the boundaries and uncompromising attention to detail.” The Rado warm-up for the 2012 season took place at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi from 29 to 31 December 2011. This event saw six of the world’s top ten male players putting their faith in Rado timekeeping and not being disappointed. Dates from the second half of the 2012 ATP World Tour, where Rado will be timekeeper, will be announced shortly. Rado was also the official watch partner of the AEGON Championship, hosted by the Queen’s Club in England which ran from 11 to 17 June.
Performance in action
The timekeeping equipment for tennis mirrors many of the performance characteristics that make up the DNA of Rado timepieces. Ranking next to absolute Swiss precision is infallible high shock resistance. The highest serving speed recorded to date was 251 kmph. Corner clocks on the courts are made to withstand high impact of serves, since speed is calculated by dividing distance over time, this timing facility is absolutely crucial from the players’ and spectators’ perspective. Physical endurance has become a key issue in top-level tennis, with recent Grand Slam matches clocking up durations approaching six hours. The Rado timing provides a reliable measure of these kind of records, thus quantifying and supporting the visualisation of incredible levels of mental and physical fitness achieved by individual players. Rado and the developers of champion-standard tennis equipment are continually looking at new ways of making specific materials and technologies get the edge in their respective fields. While the latter researches sophisticated composites for racquet frames or vibration reduction systems, Rado scores with breakthroughs such as high-tech ceramic with the ability to adapt rapidly to skin temperature, super-light timepieces with a total weight of as little as 35 grams like the Rado True Thinline, right through to hypo-allergenic ceramic for bracelets.
A perfect match
Rado and tennis share common ground embracing attitude, character and achievement. The ‘”if we can imagine it, we can make it’” philosophy that has shaped the brand’s history could equally be applied to winning tennis players’ mindsets. This strength of character and focus on achievement has formed an attitude enabling Rado and leading tennis stars to break and create many records. Examples include producing Rado V10K, the world’s hardest watch (10,000 Vickers) right through to 86-shot rallies. Accompanying this is unrivalled competence in translating resilience into beautiful designs and determination into achievement.