True Thinline Les Couleurs: Rado, Le Corbusier come together to create a timeless watch

Swiss watch brand Rado found its inspiration in Le Corbusier’s colour palette for its True Thinline Les Couleurs Le Corbusier collection.

What do a Swiss watchmaker and a legendary architect have in common?
A lot, as it turns out. Pioneers in their respective field, Rado and Le Corbusier revolutionised design processes, thus forging a way to reinvent luxury watches with a vivid perspective.


While the former laid the groundwork for the use of ceramic in watchmaking, the latter is referred to as the ‘Father of Modernism’ for his contribution as an architect, designer, painter and urban planner. So, it was no surprise when Le Corbusier’s work became the basis for Rado’s True Thin line Les Couleurs Le Corbusier watches.

Design philosophy
Le Corbusier is credited with inspiring several trends, including some on colour. Rado’s affinity with colour dates back to 1986 when it learned that hitech ceramic is a colour carrier. Aligning of the two design philosophies led to the creation of hightech ceramic timepieces with foundation in the Architectural Polychromy colour theory.

Rado launched True Thinline Les Couleurs Le Corbusier collection at an exclusive event held recently in Switzerland. “To celebrate his colour system, and to showcase our ability to create colourful high-tech ceramic, we’ve produced a vivid collection of nine limited-edition watches,” said Matthias Breschan, CEO, Rado.

Colour theory
Colour was so important for Le Corbusier that he created a tool to combine colours with relevance and accuracy. He created two colour keyboards — released in 1931 and 1959 — comprising 63 shades arranged into nine groups. Breschan says, “Each [watch] represents a colour from one of the groups in the colour keyboards. Moreover, the True Thinline is the perfect collection to introduce all these colours, as it embodies the DNA of Rado.”

From cream white to ultramarine blue, each of the watches in Rado’s spectrum is limited to 999 units. Norwegian painter Edvard Munch once stated, “The colours live a remarkable life of their own after they have been applied to the canvas”. One need only look at the Les Couleurs Le Corbusier watches to appreciate them.