Rado Collaborates With Ji Chang-wook on a True Square Open Heart Special Edition

Tapping the star’s global appeal, the limited release reinterprets the brand’s signature square silhouette through a refined, open-worked aesthetic.

Rado

Did Ji Chang-wook transition from watch brand ambassador to watch designer inadvertently? A Rado global brand ambassador since 2023, the screen star renowned for his leading roles in Healer, Empress Ki, and other South Korean television series visited the Rado headquarters in Switzerland in March 2024, where he toured Comadur, the manufacturing facility for Rado's high-tech ceramic components. What was anticipated as a routine tour of the research facility and laboratory, featuring a presentation of its production processes and a brief Q&A, evolved into a comprehensive discourse on advanced ceramics and their characteristics, encompassing enquiries regarding ceramic powder, the casting of individual components, colour infusion, and the manufacturing process of sapphire crystal, as stated by the brand.

Rado

Due to Ji Chang-wook's keen interest in ceramic watchmaking, the visit concluded with an agreement between him and Rado CEO Adrian Bosshard to produce a special edition cooperation. The True Square Open Heart x Ji Chang-wook Limited Edition, inspired by Rado’s True Square, was launched in late November 2025 during the inauguration of Rado’s inaugural flagship boutique in Bangkok. This limited edition comprises 987 pieces, presumably honouring his birth year of 1987. It features hour markers crafted from twelve rubies, his birthstone, which also symbolises fortune, vitality, and protection in Korean culture. The openworked dial represents his character, while the black exterior preserves an aura of mystery.

Rado

The watch features a monobloc case, crown, and band made from matte black high-tech ceramic, with dimensions of 38 millimetres by 44.2 millimetres and a thickness of 9.7 millimetres. Rado's self-winding calibre R734, equipped with an antimagnetic Nivachron hairspring, maintains precise timekeeping. The watch offers an eighty-hour power reserve and a water resistance of 50 meters, providing a substantial practical benefit. Red Super-Luminova complements the rubies, enhancing the rhodium-hued hour and minute hands, while nickel-toned bevels provide depth to the vertically brushed dial. The openwork dial reveals circular graining on the bridges and Geneva stripes on the movement holder, all securely housed within a sand-blasted titanium caseback featuring a smoked sapphire crystal, complemented by a flat sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides. Explore more at Rado.