Editor's Picks
A Class of its Own: The Richard Mille RM 11-03 Automatic Flyback Chronograph
Editor's Picks
A Class of its Own: The Richard Mille RM 11-03 Automatic Flyback Chronograph
And most importantly what he doesn’t say is that Mille’s watches collectively represent horology’s greatest level of technical and material innovation resulting in, amongst many things, the world’s lightest and most shock resistant watches constantly put through the paces by the world’s most elite athletes.
The RM 011
When it was introduced in 2007 the RM 011 was positioned between the RM 005 and its larger-sized successor the RM 010, the time and date automatic watches and the RM 004 a split-second chronograph with a movement created in collaboration with the fabled Renaud & Papi. It represented a fantastically designed Richard Mille with all the wonderful technical, F1- and aerospace-inspired codes, beautiful finish with a useful and reliable complication, an annual calendar, large date, automatic chronograph. It was about one third the price of a Richard Mille tourbillon.
When launched the RM 011 was a huge hit. It offered a lot of collectors new to Richard Mille a taste of his take on complicated watches without necessarily putting down the equivalent of a decent size home in most parts of the United States. But for many Mille lovers it was the point of entry into the world’s most exclusive watch lovers’ community. Was it still the world’s most expensive sports chronograph? Yes, sure. But it is important to understand that the cost related to Mille watches also comes from his desire to integrate groundbreaking innovation at each step.
Laid Bare
From a visual perspective Mille and his team took great pains to skeletonise the chronograph module seen from the front of the watch, they laid bare its inner workings in a way that was hypnotically alluring. Further the watch featured a unique display with date at 12 o clock, month at 4:30 and a 60-minute counter at 9 o’clock as well as an integrated hour/minute counter at 6 o’clock. Over the years Mille also extrapolated it into different versions, many bestowed with highly arousing sobriquets like Red Demon or Yellow Flash. Mille also used it as the test platform for his experiments in carbon-fibre cases both in forged carbon and later in the more rigid Northply TPT. There is an image taken by The Rake magazine of him wearing the very first carbon-cased Richard Mille an RM 011, shot at his home in Brittany, while astride his vintage Harley Davidson. What is extraordinary in that a full decade later the original RM 011 remains one the most stunning modern chronographs ever created.
The first thing that happened was he immediately separated the wheat from the chaff, only real collectors with true passion and real liquidity could approach the brand. The second thing was for that every Mille watch created there were already ten or more customers that wanted to buy that piece. Which meant that the waiting list for the RM 011, started to massively outpace the rate of production of the watches.
The RM 11-03
It was 2016. I remember sitting in a room full of the world’s most sophisticated and accomplished vintage car collectors – including my friend who had piloted her 250 GTO to Chantilly, the world’s preeminent concourse – when everyone suddenly left the table. Because everyone, and I mean individuals that had spent the better part of the year readying their automotive finery for competition, wanted to touch and try on Richard Mille’s new RM 11-03, the revised version of one of his signature models.
Likewise, the variable inertia automatic rotor had all excess material excised until all that remained was the bare skeletal structure of the oscillating mass and the two white-gold adjustable wings. New pushers were formed in the shape of accelerator pedals and were surrounded by carbon fibre protective shrouds made from NTPT. The crown was bigger yet more ergonomic and fitted with rubber elements imprinted with tyre-tread patterns for better tactility. The watch was simply staggering in its traffic stopping presence. But what I didn’t know at the time was it was also about to become one of the most coveted timepieces in human history.
The RM 11-03 McLaren
One of the greatest things about Richard Mille is his consistency. And one of his most constant objectives is his focus on material innovation, which has let to his pioneering work in two materials. The first is Northply TPT (thin ply technology) carbon fibre, which uses irregular weave carbon fibre that is formed layer by layer into a block. The result is something that looks like marble and as such each piece is unique because of the irregularity of the layers. This is then machined in-house at his manufacture into the modular parts of his case.
RM 11-03 Jean Todt
Rendered in stunning opalescent, shimmering blue Quartz TPT, the Richard Mille 11-03 Jean Todt 50th anniversary watch is one of Mille’s most staggeringly beautiful watches. It is also one of his hardest watches to find. Today if you want to find one of these a home on your wrist, you need to throw down an additional US$100,000 on top of the watch’s already $160,000 retail price. And you’d still be getting something of a bargain because I know of watches that have transacted in the low US$300,000 range. I bring this up not as the aforementioned YouTube personality to brag about the type of money being spent on Mille watches, but to demonstrate that the RM 11-03 has now become one of the single most hotly contested timepieces in the world.
RM 11-03 Le Mans Classic
OK. Forgive me if I’ve rambled somewhat. I think it’s clear by now that if you were to open one of my veins I would bleed Richard Mille Northply carbon. Mille has been extremely prescient and hyper-precise in terms of the audience he has targeted. And because he is a vintage car collector and racer – I think he owns something like 100 cars now – focused in particular on pre-electronic era F1 cars, he understands the mentality of the men and women who race at the Le Mans Classic.