Rado has become the Official Timing Partner of European Cricket, and it has marked the tie the way brands usually do, with a special edition. The Captain Cook x European Cricket keeps the diver most people already know and works the sport into the details rather than plastering it across the dial. Monochrome reported it on 11 August 2026.
The familiar case
Since its 2017 revival, the Captain Cook has spread into 37mm models, ceramic and bronze versions and high-tech divers, but this one is built on the standard 43mm steel case. It measures 49.8mm lug to lug and 16.2mm thick, and holds a 300-metre rating. The polished case is paired with a rotating bezel in yellow gold PVD, fitted with one of Rado's blue high-tech ceramic inserts, laser-engraved with gold numerals and markers. The crown screws down and is also gold PVD, and the box-shaped sapphire has anti-reflective coating. The caseback carries a straightforward engraving: "Official Timing Partner European Cricket."
The details are in the dial
This is where the theme lives, and it is handled with more restraint than the concept suggests. The dial is a blue gradient taken from European Cricket's visual identity, textured to read like a pitch seen from above. The three gold dots above the Rado logo stand in for the three stumps of a wicket. The rotating anchor, Rado's old signature, now turns against a red disc that stands for a leather cricket ball, and the seconds hand picks up the same red at its tip. The minute track is meant to echo the stitched seam of a ball. Applied yellow gold indices and the broad Captain Cook hands are filled with white Super-LumiNova.
Powermatic 80
Inside is the automatic calibre R763, Rado's badge for the Swatch Group workhorse better known as the ETA C07.611, or Powermatic 80. It carries an antimagnetic Nivachron hairspring, runs at 21,600 vibrations per hour and stores 80 hours of reserve. Rado says this version is regulated more tightly than standard, in up to five positions. It is not an exotic movement, but at this price the long reserve and the antimagnetic hairspring are the right things to have.
Three straps, one price
The watch ships on a steel bracelet with yellow gold PVD centre links and a titanium folding clasp, and it comes with two more options in the box: a dark blue NATO-style textile strap and a black rubber strap, each with matching gold-coloured hardware. A dedicated pouch holds all three. It is available now at CHF 2,550, and Rado's site is at rado.com.
Sports tie-ins usually produce a logo on a caseback and little else. This one is more thought through, and if you follow the game the dial rewards a second look. If you do not, it still reads as a blue-and-gold Captain Cook.
