Lucky 14

[scottjc]

Do you have any idea how many different styles Rado produced, such as the Diastars, Balboa, etc.? I guess that would be a hard question to answer for any watch brand.

That question is harder to answer than you can imagine as Rado themselves have denied knowledge of models that we have physical evidence of.
Henry has pretty much answered the Diastar question earlier in this thread but I will try to expand on other models.
I have a dozen Balboas in my collection, the only duplication being different mineral dials on two models and two Breithorns. I know that I am missing at least four of the rarest Balboa variants, the Excel (which I had and sold on) and the Tigers (blue, green and brown are known to exist so far).
As far as scratchproof watches go, there is also the Hardtron, the tungsten carbide cased version of the Marstron with the electronic movement.
When you get to the stainless steel watches it gets pretty crazy, especially when you start counting the Horse and Gazelle models (purple, silver, golden, amber, sapphire, etc).
What makes it more difficult is that we are still discovering models we didn't previously know about

[Henry Krinkle]

Great story and beautiful photos, Henry. That 40 Years of Diastar is really beautiful. Thanks for the write-up. Do you have any idea how many different styles Rado produced, such as the Diastars, Balboa, etc.? I guess that would be a hard question to answer for any watch brand.

Thank you Jane. If my collection ever shrunk down to half a dozen or so the 40 Years would be part of it.

As to your other question Scott has done a fair job of describing the difficulties of answering that, but here's what I know. There are roughly 400 known models of Rados. Mens watches. Vintage mens. There are at least 250 womens models as well. Within those, popular models like the Diastar, Balboa, Golden or Green Horse have up to 100 or more sub models, each of which might have dozens of dial variations. A Radoiste friend and his wife have more than 350 Rados between the two of them and they have barely scratched the surface.

Discounting simple dial variations I would guess that one would need to have 800-1000 watches to have one of each Rado mens model/ model variant produced from 1957 to the mid-1980s. This does not include the host of unnamed watches that Rado still releases.

[scottjc]

Are you still at 14 Diastars?
I mean, 15 would be madness....

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[Henry Krinkle]

Are you still at 14 Diastars?
I mean, 15 would be madness....

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Off the top of my head I think I have 13 now because I came to my senses and realised that 14 was madness.

I only have one Diastar 10 now, I sold the 2 to Tim and the Diastar 18 Magic to a guy in the Middle East. I traded one of my Jetliners, sans bracelet, for another 8/1 tigereye that I like better than my first, despite the poorer condition.

I'll see if I can't edit the first post to re-insert the photos.

Dare I ask what your count is at?

[Henry Krinkle]

Just to clarify, that does not include the D-Star or the D-200.

[SyntaxTerror]

Off the top of my head I think I have 13 now because I came to my senses and realised that 14 was madness.

Dare I ask what your count is at?

If both 14 and 15 is madness, I figure the only logical solution is to have 16.

[Henry Krinkle]

If both 14 and 15 is madness, I figure the only logical solution is to have 16.

Ask Scott. He'd agree that in this case 16 would be madness.

The running gag between us is that the exact number of Diastars one has is the perfect amount. One more would be madness... until you buy one more.

[Henry Krinkle]

In this case 15 would clearly be madness as I have forgotten this early 2000s example

P8031936 by Hank Blanc, on Flickr

[SyntaxTerror]

Ask Scott. He'd agree that in this case 16 would be madness.

The running gag between us is that the exact number of Diastars one has is the perfect amount. One more would be madness... until you buy one more.

Hm. Maybe I was wrong all along. I always figure I'm just one watch away from attaining nirvana?

[Henry Krinkle]

Hm. Maybe I was wrong all along. I always figure I'm just one watch away from attaining nirvana?

Nirvna/ madness. Potato/ potato.