Reviews
Master of Complexity: Richard Mille RM 039 E6-B Tourbillon
Reviews
Master of Complexity: Richard Mille RM 039 E6-B Tourbillon
Although Mille’s passion for Formula 1 is well known, he is equally effusive about technology and technique as it applies to aviation. In designing a watch for aviation, Mille not only referenced his knowledge of aviation materials, he also asked himself, what else was needed from a flight instrument: in the air, with a map and no other instruments to help you out, can a watch get you home? Although there are now a host of electronic instruments in planes that provide very precise information about speed, distance, and time, pilots still want to carry a mechanical flight instrument in the event that everything else fails. Rather than ending up dead, “dead reckoning” using a watch and an E6-B slide rule is the better part of the two options.
E6-B: the “Dead Reckoning” computer
“Dead reckoning” as a navigational system is fairly simple: distance traveled is a function of speed multiplied by time. From a start position on the aeronautical chart, a line of points at estimated positions at fixed intervals (say every 15 or 30 minutes) is drawn. At each interval, visual observations of ground features are used to obtain fixes. By comparing the fix and the estimated position, corrections are made to the aircraft’s heading and speed.
As simple as it sounds, the equation becomes far more complex because of a number of factors that can affect the aircraft. Not least of which are wind direction, the density of the air, whether the aircraft is climbing or descending. Dead reckoning requires that all of the necessary variables are considered to compute position, fuel, and the true course or heading. As part of the E6-B flight computer, the “wind triangle” is used to calculate the effects of wind on heading and airspeed to obtain a magnetic heading; allowance is also made for the effects of air density on aircraft rate of climb, rate of fuel burn, and airspeed. Such is the importance of understanding these effects, especially in emergencies where other flight instruments are down, that dead reckoning is still taught as VFR (Visual Flight Rules) for new pilots.
Before the advent of electronic navigation systems into the cockpit, pilots had to rely on manual instruments to make quick calculations about actual speed and distance traveled, with a number of variables in play. These included the E6-B, a basic but comprehensive manual flight computer. Although the E6-B was not the first or final iteration of the manual flight computer, it was the term used by US forces during the Second World War to refer to the manual flight computer, to the extent that it entered popular folklore and was even used by Spock in early episodes of Star Trek!
THE RM 039 E6-B
The RM 039 E6-B represented Mille’s most ambitious watch at that time (2012) in terms of technical complexity. Arguably, it still is. It is, in the considered opinion of none other than Giulio Papi, the most complex watch in production. This is not counting a watch by the number of complications, or necessarily the number of parts per se, but the required complexity to synchronize a number of parts moving at precisely the same moment. The RM 039 incorporates the E6-B flight computer as a round slide rule within the case; Just the case alone contains over 300 parts.
Complexity
To provide some idea of the complexity, for the ON/OFF function that is part of the chronograph, the springs have to be aligned in an exact manner. The chronograph contains a number of unique features specifically designed for use as a flight instrument. The watch wearer can start or stop the chronograph with a pusher located at 10 o’clock. The flyback function can be reset to zero at any time using the pusher at 8 o’clock. To stop the chronograph, press the pusher at 10 o’clock, then press the reset/flyback pusher.
For Mille, the integrity of the watch was paramount and absolute. Despite the size of the watch (a diameter of 50mm and a height of 19.2mm) it fits perfectly on the wrist. Over 800 milling operations are required (over 11 hours) to create the case shell. Another separate whole day of quality control checks follows. The five separate pushers, the crown, and their separate components are another 10 days of machining after which various testing is undertaken for quality control and water testing on the seals. Everything is considered: from the design of the wheels or cogs to the coloring of the instrument for the readouts. The design for the bridges and various levers is taken from the same design that aircraft have. Mille scoured archives and the internet looking for the exact form for design or color. Even for parts of the movement that remain hidden in the completed watch, the same attention to detail and the same level of finishing pervades.
The base plate and other plates in the movement are made from PVD coated titanium. This was a departure from using carbon nanofiber, and the reason was simple. The RM 039 was so complex that the baseplate required a similar degree of complexity in the design. The carbon nanofiber was not able to accommodate the complex number of screws, jewels, and pivots.
Flight Instrument
The RM 039 Aviation E6-B also includes an oversize date display, placed at 12 o’clock, that uses two skeletonized calendar discs. The pusher at 2 o’clock is for easy date correction. The watch’s UTC function displays a second time zone by means of a Super-LumiNova-filled hand. The watch is also equipped with a function selector, similar to a car’s gearbox, in which a push-button located at the center of the crown allows one to select the winding, neutral and hand-setting functions with a simple push. A hand at 4 o’clock displays the selected function: “W” (Winding), “N” (Neutral), H (Hands), or “U” (UTC, for setting the UTC hand).
The movement contains 740 parts, including 58 jewels, and has a power reserve of 70 hours (which is displayed at 2 o’clock). The skeletonized baseplate and bridges are in grade 5 titanium. It has a balance wheel with variable inertia and a fast-rotating barrel (five hours per revolution rather than the more common 7.5 hours).
An Unsung Pioneer!
The watch is a tour de force mechanical flight computer. Yet for some reason the RM 039T E6-B did not receive the fanfare plaudits it should have. Perhaps because of the time taken between launch (in 2012) and when the watches made their appearance in boutiques around the world (the latter part of 2015 onwards). The complexity of the watch required that all possible permutations and combinations were tried. With over a thousand parts, plus testing for g-forces, the watch was delayed. The other reason lies in the fact that a number were pre-ordered and sold even before a working prototype was available with only 30 made in the series. Once finished, the watches simply went to the waiting wrists of collectors.
As an additional note, the E6-B functions were then included into the RM 039-01 Flyback Chronograph. Part of the complexity was removed in terms of the countdown/chronograph functions and the tourbillon escapement (as well as the integrated chronograph functions into the movement). The same colour design and complexity in the case remained. Nonetheless, the RM 039-01 remains one of the more complex chronographs on the market.