trophy slideshow-left slideshow-right chevron-left chevron-right chevron-light chevron-light play play-outline external-arrow pointer hodinkee-shop hodinkee-shop share-arrow share show-more-arrow watch101-hotspot instagram nav dropdown-arrow full-article-view read-more-arrow close close close email facebook h image-centric-view newletter-icon pinterest search-light hodinkee-logo search magnifying-glass thumbnail-view twitter view-image checkmark triangle-down chevron-right-circle chevron-right-circle-white lock shop live events conversation watch plus plus-circle camera comments download x heart comment default-watch-avatar overflow check-circle right-white right-black comment-bubble instagram speech-bubble shopping-bag shop watch Stories Sort Arrows New Search Clear Search

Interview Rainer Mutsch On Designing The Rado True Stratum

Playing with light and geometry results in an amphitheater for the wrist.

Rainer Mutsch embodies modern Vienna. He is an industrial designer creating minimalist designs atop an extremely busy street around the corner from the Belvedere Palace. In other words, it’s a mix of creative edge, traffic that could have put Jimi Hendrix in a songwriting mood, and Disneyland-for-real. Mutsch’s designs are often very material and tech-driven – he studied furniture design in Copenhagen, product design at the University of Arts Berlin, and industrial design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. He's had his own design studio since 2008, with notable projects including modular outdoor furniture made of fiber-cement, as well as a variety of other projects in which structural and mechanical properties go hand-in-hand. With this focus, it makes sense that Rado (with its emphasis on materials-driven watch design) paid a visit to his studio in a 19th-century apartment building some 18 months ago – where I met him to talk about his design for the Rado True Stratum.

rainer mutsch rado

After apologizing for the door buzzer not working (it was a nice change of pace to be met by a personalized handwritten note sticky-taped to the intercom) and apologizing again for the lack of an elevator, Mutsch leads me into a high-ceilinged apartment, with walls lined with prototypes and sketches of products that are now in production at global furniture and lighting companies. 

ADVERTISEMENT

A lot of watch designers pay extreme attention to the layout of the digits, and typography. But Mutsch, 40 this year, chose a road less travelled. “When Rado contacted me I asked myself ‘what value can I add to a company that has a long tradition in material and design?’ I am an industrial designer, not a graphic designer, so I wanted to work with the third dimension. This was the basic idea behind what would become Rado True Stratum, a very pure watch,” he says.

Rainer Mutsch's Aeon marble shelf is characteristic of his minimal, material-driven style of design.

Anders Modig

Once you had the basic idea for this watch, what was the next step?

Rainer Mutsch

My strength as a designer is that I can open up new perspectives on a product. In this case I realized the huge potential in maxing out the quite large, mostly unused space in between the glass and the actual mechanics. The idea was also to bring a slight shift towards the crown through introducing this asymmetrical part; the amphitheatre – I didn’t want to focus on the central point. 

rado true stratum
AM

Why not?

RM

Because the central point is the archetype of how to start to design watches. OK, I have a middle point, which is essential for the main axis of the hands. But I wanted to open this up.

AM

I don’t quite understand why. If you look at it from a purely functional aspect, a classical watch is a really central thing with hands attached to the center and moving around this center in a circle. What in the design process led you to break away from this fundamental idea of the product?

RM

That is a good question. I had two main reasons – with this asymmetrical direction the dial reacts stronger to different light situations, and it has also got to do with the clockwork. Looking at the 3D images of the movement during the research, I realized there is this very important axis on the mainplate onto which small cogs are attached, which has this focus.

rado true stratum sketches
AM

How is it different to design a watch from, say, a chair or a lamp?

RM

I always have the same procedure, no matter the scale. The basic feeling is very important; thus in the initial stage I don’t want to do too much research. I do want to understand the brand, as including the brand history in the design is a very interesting part of my work. But look too much into the company, and it could affect the qualities; the respect might get too big. I also need to have a certain naivety in my approach. In this case I was really interested in getting into the micro architecture of a watch. Of course, other watches have glimpses of three-dimensionality, but I wanted to get deeper into this to integrate the ambient lighting into what eventually became a miniaturized version of the archaic architecture of the amphitheatre.

AM

How was it to adapt to the scale of watches?

RM

There are some positions (between 8 and 10 o’clock) where the hands are only two- or three-tenths of a millimetre from the dial – I find the precision and that you can work with such tiny tolerances fantastic. When you do furniture you always accept 1-2 millimetres variation, but 1 centimetre is quite a lot. But then again in architecture 1 centimetre is nothing. It was fantastic to see that, once the scale goes down, there are still humans that can handle this. I actually had huge concerns that the second hand might get stuck, and I was talking to the guys at the technical department at Rado, but they just said 'calm down, Rainer, welcome to the world we live in.'

rado true stratum wristshot
AM

What else is different? 

RM

The finishing. The challenge was to make perfect edgy steps in the amphitheatre. I didn’t want to soften them; I wanted them really exact. To stamp this kind of micro architecture without having the fillets (the potential “leftovers” from stamping) that you always get when making larger things like metal joints on furniture – this is nothing less than a huge achievement!

ADVERTISEMENT
AM

What can you say about the back?

RM

I wanted to play with the asymmetrical direction also as an opening on the back of the watch, where you can get a glimpse of the mechanics playing hide-and-seek behind the black oscillating weight. Surrounding the opening are four little steps of one-tenth of a millimetre that create a 2 percent difference in height – a functional decoration that makes the watch a little bit more comfortable to wear and makes you sweat a little bit less.

rado true stratum back

A look at the back of the True Stratum, with its small sapphire window.

AM

The apparent main character on the dial is the yellow second hand.

RM

Yes, I wanted to use a color that is not too aggressive but still powerful, technical and not too playful.This color also softens some of the masculine points on a watch that could be seen as unisex – yellow is an unusual color. To have a strong second hand was necessary to underline the movement of an automatic watch – I love the way it moves in these tiny steps.

rado true stratum sketch rainer mutsch
AM

But surely it must also be a nod to Lubs and (Dieter) Rams Braun watches, or even Jasper Morrison for Rado. 

RM

Yes, Rams makes a point with this color in the 1960s. And I like yellow, because … take orange for instance. Orange always comes back every eight to ten years, but pretty soon it is gone again. It loses its quality quickly, and it is strongly linked with the 1970s. Just like the millennial pinkish fad, some colors define an exact era, which is why I don’t want to introduce them in products, because they get dated quickly. Especially with a watch, I don’t want to put a very exact time stamp on it. I want to keep it fresh longer, and yellow can stay fresh for quite a long time.

true stratum crystal rado

The black dot in the center floats over the dial, casting a subtle shadow.

AM

What is the hovering black dot in the center of the glass made of?

RM

It is a metal deposited on the inside of the glass through a vaporization process. That’s how it gets to be so perfect. The dot adds another depth to the dial through its reflection, and it also casts a dark shadow on the dial...it does give you an awareness of the sun. On a sunny day you don’t have to look up into the sky, because the strength and clarity of the reflection together with the light-play in the amphitheatre makes you go: "Ah, it must be something around noon."

ADVERTISEMENT
AM

How is it to work with ceramic?

RM

The material is very important, and I opted for a finish which is in between glossy and matt. Too glossy would look cheap, too matt would eat too much of the light. And remember that ceramic is a super tricky material. It shrinks radically in the sintering process: 25 percent disappears – it is really crazy. And imagine that it shrinks to this precision where the tolerances are not even a tenth of a millimetre – a highly precise process. Sure, they mill out some basic fittings on the case, but basically there are no tolerances, or the cases wouldn’t be watertight anymore. It takes a lot of willpower to choose such a material in this kind of industry.

AM

So, this watch is just like most other products you design – a lot more technical than it appears at a glance.

RM

Yes! I really like to work with the super nerdy techy engineers and designers from the companies I work with. Because when they realize that you are really interested in their field, they open up and tell you the really deep stuff. As soon as I get a glimpse of understanding, it starts to bubble strangely in my head, and I need to draw something. In the end, however, I don’t want the technical aspects to be obvious.

rainer mutsch sketching rado true stratum
AM

Being a left-hander, do you wear your watch on your left or right wrist when you draw?

RM

Always on my left, so for me it is even more important that it is scratch-resistant, because could you imagine a steel band after a while? Even though I really like it when an old Rolex is a little bit scratched and worn, I find ceramic to be the perfect material for a watch. Look at this prototype I am wearing, I have drawn kilometres, and it hasn’t got a scratch.

AM

Let’s get back to Dieter Rams – a god for so many industrial designers, including Apple designers Marc Newson and Jony Ive. What has Rams meant to you?

RM

He is a very important figure. I have followed him since I started designing. I always wanted to understand what the difference is between his extreme Bauhaus-related minimalism and the extremely expressionistic Memphis (the Memphis Group was an influential design group active in the 1980s) from Italy. The span is so great, of course, but both are very important styles for me. Both had their relevance; both had their strengths – and also weaknesses.

rainer mutsch sketching rado true stratum
ADVERTISEMENT
AM

Is the role of the designer the same in the watch world as in other industries?  

RM

It is completely different in the furniture industry. When you go to Milan to the furniture shows, every tiny little piece is branded or communicates the author or designer. When you look at a company like Rolex, the designers are always in the background, and the watches are never about the personality of the designer, unlike in the furniture world where, for instance, the very theoretical approach of Konstantin Grcic is very present in his products. (Grcic has designed for Rado as well.)

AM

Are you able to be Rainer Mutsch with Rado? 

RM

I can never tell this close to the process, but it is good if people can say in five years that this watch fits perfectly in my development. What I am known for is that I can adapt and use existing materials in new ways. I often get the question ‘what defines you?’ but it is not so easy to answer, because for me it is all about making sure that the materials and the shapes make sense when you use the product. It must make sense; I don’t like being decorative just for the sake of a design.

To see more of Rainer Mutsch's design work, as well as his work for Rado, check out rainermutsch.com.