Rado was established as the Uhrwerkfabrik Schlup & Co. in the year 1917 in Lengnau by the brothers Schlup. In the next few decades Rado worked on several design icons, the more modern of these still being documented on their official site's historical page. Not mentioned however are several models from the fifties untill the late eighties, like this Alpine series Schilthorn.

One of Rado's lesser known preoccupations - apart from scratch resistance - was with alpine geography, it lasted only a short while from circa 1972 untill 1974, but these were specifically designed to look like the mountains they were named for. Of course, featured prominently is the Rado anchor which moves when the watch moves; a design feature that lasted well into the eighties with Rado. Also, many of them were fitted with sapphire crystals and/or were featured in the Diastar range like the Rado Eiger or Balboa. Below is a list of these vintage Rados.

* means photo available..

Alpineum* - is a museum with a diorama of the Alpes in Luzern, Switzerland

Arosa* - is a city in Switzerland.

Berg* - is the name of several cities in Switzerland, Austria, Germany and also German for mountain.

Bernina* - is a mountain(Piz Bernina), a mountain pass and a district in the Swiss eastern Alpes

Breithorn - ("broad horn") is a mountain near Zermatt in Switzerland

Brienzer - is an inhabitant of the Swiss city of Brienz - in the near the Brienzer Rothorn

Brig - is a city and a district in the Kanton Wallis in Switzerland

Durance - The Durance is a river in the French Alps.

Ebnat - is a city in Switzerland

Eiger* - is a mountain near Zermatt in Switzerland

Esel - is a mountain in Switzerland - and German for donkey

Freiger - or Wilder Freiger is a mountain in Tirol at the Austrian-Italian border

Furka - is a mountain pass connecting the Swiss federal states Uri and Wallis

Gorner - is a glacier near Zermatt in Switzerland

Jorasses - or Grandes Jorasses is a mountain near the Montblanc in France

Kapell - is a skiing and hiking area in Austria

Kriens - is a city near Luzern in Switzerland

Lauberhorn - is a mountain and a famous ski race located near Wengen in Switzerland

Limmat - is a river in Switzerland

Lumino* - is a municipality in the district of Bellinzona in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.

Matterhorn - is one of the most famous mountains of the Alpes near Zermatt, Switzerland

Meilen - is a city at the Lake Zürich in Switzerland

Monte Rosa - is the 2nd highest mountain of the Alpes in Switzerland

Murten - is a city in Switzerland

Randegg - is a city in Austria

Rothorn - ("red horn") or Brienzer Rothorn is the name of a mountain near Brienz in Switzerland, a lot of other mountains in the Alpes wear this name

Scheidegg - is a mountain pass in Switzerland(Große/Large and Kleine/Small Scheidegg)

Schilthorn* - is a mountain near Mürren in Switzerland

Schreckhorn - is a mountain in Switzerland

Simplon - is a mountain pass in Switzerland

Ticino - is both a river and a Kanton(federal state) in Switzerland (see also Lumino above)

The original NSA bracelet with signed Rado clasp is present on this watch. Box has survived as well. A lot of Rados in the late 1960s, 1970s came on NSA bracelets with Rado-signed clasps. The factory Novavit SA (NSA) was sited in Carouge, Kanton/federal state Genf/Geneve, Switzerland and was liquidated in 1999.

It had been founded in 1947, the business was to produce bracelets for the watch industry with almost blanked parts and also blanked parts for the whole fine mechanic. It seems to have been the family enterprise of a family called Nobs. The company logo is a triangle inner a circle. NSA became world famous for their very comfortable high quality watch bracelets, especially for the so called 7-row. This was applied for patent in 1966 and patented in 1967. Probably they also had a patent for their clasps - both, the short and the long (folded) type have a spring mechanic which makes it automatically a bit longer if there´s enough pressure, e.g. in the summerheat, when the wrist swells a bit.

I´ve seen 7-rows and 3-rows with signed clasps of a lot of watch companies in Switzerland as Tag Heuer, Jaeger LeCoultre, Rado, Felca/Titoni, Zodiac, Technos, Roamer, Louis Rossel, ... .

They also had been available in the aftermarket with NSA-signed clasps.

7-rows had been also produced in USA (Kreisler, under license) and Italy (I don´t know if licensed or for NSA).

You can find NSAs in a lot of variations in material (SS, GP, titanium, "bicolour", synthetic material, PVD-coated) and surface design. The company still registered a few patents in the 1980s but finished work in 1995 (finally liquidated 1999).

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