PARADISI RP 01 [Solid Handbuilt Italian Diver]

When the founder of Paradisi, Riccardo Paradisi decided to design and engineer his own diver’s watch, he looked to one of the toughest case materials that there is to work with within the watch industry. Not because he wanted to make life difficult for himself but because he wanted the very best for his debut model, the RP 01. And because of Riccardo’s experience working within the materials technologies sector, he knew exactly what he wanted for his first watches, and that was Grade 5 Titanium. We are no strangers to Grade 5 Titanium, here. We know of its virtues such as its high-tensile strength, its ultra-lightweight, its high-level of corrosion-resistance and of course its hypoallergenic properties. We also know that because of its incredible strength that it is also one of the most expensive materials to work with, often damaging the tooling used when manufacturing with it. Nevertheless Riccardo forged ahead with his plan which was to produce a small series of the RP 01 in Grade 5 Titanium of which some would be even supplied for use by the Navy. But before fully realizing his RP 01 ambitions, Riccardo had to create the necessary infrastructure in which to produce such a watch. This included building and engineering his own testing machinery; he manufactured a machine capable of testing the water-resistance of his diving instruments up to a water column of 4’000 meters.

All this propelled Riccardo, aged just 25 (at the time in 2015) well and truly into the field of watchmaking and industrial design and technology. A year later in 2016 Riccardo finally undertook his ambitious and fascinating project, to make a divers’ watch entirely made in Italy with the exception of a Swiss movement. All the RP 01’s mechanical components have been designed by Paradisi and manufactured by several companies within Italy.

The final version of the ref. RP 01 was eventually produced in 3 variants: Grade 5 Titanium, 904L Stainless steel, Grade 5 Titanium with DLC. The RP 01 has been engineered for use in Saturation Diving even without the aid of a Helium Escape Valve, made possible through working with highly accurate processing techniques with high tolerances. The case, the winding crown, the unidirectional bezel, the case-back and the movement ring have all been machined from solid from a bar Titanium or Steel while the satin finishing of the cases has been performed manually by several craftsmen. Every single component used for the RP 01 has been fabricated in Italy involving more than twenty different companies, allowing Paradisi to keep a close eye on each stage of the manufacturing process. Each individual watch has been tested to the equivalent pressure of 1’500 meters below sea level, thus ensuring a large margin of safety allowing for extreme professional use.

Other testing included thermal stress and mechanical resistance of the straps, in order to guarantee the maximum reliability. Production is truly limited, so just ten examples of each of the three variants. Thoughts? There are few things we appreciate more than hand-built, handcrafted tool watches, those from Germans and Italians alike; Ennebi, G&W and Gruppo Ardito, VDB, Kaventsmann. 

 

Now, Paridisi are looking to enter this legendary segment with their RP 01. It has all the hallmarks of a great artisanal tool diver. 

 

It even has many of those desirable design cues such as its sheer presence and paired back dial and bezel features. Now the proof of the pudding must be in the eating.