This Retro Diver Offers a Cool Alternative to the Traditional Travel Watch

Rado introduced the Captain Cook Over-Pole in 1962, and it came equipped with one of the coolest bezels of all time.

It’s called a world time bezel, not to be confused with a world time complication, and it is a brilliantly simple way to track time across different time zones: basically, the bezel is marked with two-dozen major cities, each one representing a different time across the globe.

Rado

When Rado reintroduced the Captain Cook Over-Pole in 2022, it became one of the few modern watches with this handy feature, not to mention the best-looking, too.

Now, for 2025, the reissue returns with a slightly bigger case size and PVD-coated gold finish.

A gilded glow-up

The 2022 Captain Cook Over-Pole remained faithful to the original design. It had a 37-millimeter steel case, a date window at three o’clock, a rotating Rado icon at twelve o’clock and a black world time bezel with silver markings.

The major upgrades were a display case back, a silver gradient dial rather than polished silver, a ceramic bezel upgrade and an anti-reflective coating on the crystal.

Rado

All the major design elements remain the same with the 2025 version, except they have been scaled up slightly to a 39-millimeter case. It also runs on the same hand-wound Rado caliber R862 movement. Of course, the major visual change is a PVD gold coating on the stainless steel case, bezel, hands and dial markings.

PVD stands for Physical Vapor Deposition. It is a process to thoroughly and securely coat surfaces with metals. In this case, the stainless steel has been coated with a very thin layer of gold.

Rado

A more subtle visual change is that the dial on the newest Captain Cook Over-Pole is the same polished steel finish found on the original. Just as with the 2022 version, it comes with a black pebbled leather strap with a pin buckle, as well as a second beads of rice steel strap, which also has a PVD gold coating.

The low-tech timezone tracker

World time bezels are brilliantly simple. There are 24 markers placed along the outside rim of the dial, at and in between each minute marker, representing the 24 hours in a day. The bezel has 24 corresponding markers that represent the world time zones, each labeled with a major city within that zone.

Rado

Unlike a world time complication, the bezel version requires a quick turn and a bit of simple math. To determine the time in another zone, you start with the time where you currently are and rotate the bezel mark for that zone to the corresponding mark on the dial. Then, every other zone is lined up with the accurate local time.

For example, if you are in New York City and it is 2:10 p.m., turn the New York mark on the bezel to align with the 14 marker on the dial. You can now see that it is six hours larer in Geneva, meaning that it is 8:10 p.m. there.

Rado

What’s more, a world time bezel looks really cool. It adds an interesting and functional element to a sleek dress watch, and will undoubtedly provoke questions about what it is and how it works.

Availability and pricing

The Rado Captain Cook Over-Pole 39 millimeter PVD Gold, reference number R32193018, is a limited edition of 1,962 units to mark the year that the watch was first released.

Rado has yet to confirm a release date, however, it will go for 2,700 Swiss Francs (around $2,984 USD) when it does hit retailers later this year.

Rado

Rado Captain Cook Over-Pole Gold PVD

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