Here's the date only Marco Polo, ref 11836:




The bracelet and case were filthy , the crystal has no deep scratches but is very scuffed all over and the dial is full of black marks.



Pretty clean movement.



The black marks are specks of something and blew right off with a little gentle air.











The bracelet was completely disassembled and run through the ultrasonic cleaner.
The case back and sides got the lightest of polishes but the brushed front was only cleaned.



Here's my Day/date GP.

And of course the crystal was polished.

Thanks Mike! I have read Rado won't acknowledge that the Marco Polo is a Rado but I don't know why. In my opinion it is a classic Rado. It's stylish and comfortable. The cushion case and pillar markers are lovely and the big crown is the perfect size.

There have been a flurry of Marco Polos on the bay right now, but except for mine they have all gone for $250 and up. Most of them have been fiddled with and do not have NSAs. My two Marco Polos together didn't cost close to those prices and I believe both to be 100% original.

hello henry,
thanks for your invite mail....im glad to have a new home for providing new infos, pics and regular conversation.
thats a nice marco polo, not my cup of tea (had a SS daydate, too...for 2 weeks or so, sold it directly), but the ETA 2472 movement looks incredible !!!!
greetings,

Hi Pimp,

Ithink if everyone liked the same things collecting anything would be boring. I admire how focussed your collecting is. You concentrate on the funkiest funk scratchproof watches out there. More than a third of my collection are TC cased but I really like some of the 60's vintage Rados. Jetliners, Narco Polos and some Starliners appeal to me too much to give up on that decade. Variety of taste is part of what makes collecting so much fun though, isn't it?

Mike,

That was from Brad. I believe he once told me that when he was writing his Rado history articles Rado informed him that they had no evidence that they made the Marco Polo and they asked him to remove any reference of them.

It is ridiculous- one look at a Marco Polo and it is plainly evident that Rado alone could have made it.

There is no doubt that people like you and Sucram, and the Rado forum in general, have provided Rado with a lot of information that they didn't have , or couldn't be bothered to find.

Speaking of your homepage, I've been thinking that someone needs to make a page like yours but with only Diastars. In otherwords images of all the variants in order. That would be quite a reference work too.

it is, henry ! it is...

Hi Henry,
if you keep on restoring Rados in this incredible way, I am sure many of us will start sending you their watches for cleaning and restoring.
Really amazing work!
Mike: thanks for hosting us EoT-members on your website. Hopefully you can cope with a larger number of threads.
Best regards to all EoT guys and girls
Peter

Hello Peter,

Thank you. I really enjoy trying to bring a watch back to some of it's former glory without changing the way it originally was. I try to find the right balance between making something nicer and going to far. I don't like a watch that loses all it's character by being over polished. I would much rather it retained some signs of it's age and use.


Mike, I will certainly be willing to do my part. While it is only a fraction of the number of Diastar models made, my DS collection seems to be ever expanding. I have or have had at least the following-"0", 1/E, 2, 3, 8, 8/1 Tigereye, 10, 11, 14, 18 Magic, 19Magic, one with only a ref number, 40 and 40 Years.

I can't believe I left Brad's name out of the list of people who have contributed to Rado's knowledge of themselves. My bad.