{"id":79095,"date":"2018-02-28T02:30:46","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T18:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revolution.watch\/?p=79095"},"modified":"2024-04-17T08:46:53","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T00:46:53","slug":"watch-changed-world-richard-mille-rm-001-tourbillon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revolutionwatch.com\/watch-changed-world-richard-mille-rm-001-tourbillon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Watch that Changed the World: Richard Mille RM 001 Tourbillon"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s one thing that Richard Mille watches represent never-before-achieved levels of shock-resistance and ergonomic comfort. And another that they would go on to thrice break the\u00a0world record for the lightest mechanical watch ever made. But all that\u00a0technical credibility would mean nothing if you did not fall in love the first time you set eyes on them. The first time I witnessed the Richard Mille RM 001 in\u00a0the flesh was like Ursula Andress rising out of the\u00a0sea\u00a0like Botticelli\u2019s Venus, accompanied by\u00a0the\u00a0K\u00e4rntnertortheater Orchestra\u2019s 1824 performance of Beethoven\u2019s \u201cOde\u00a0to Joy\u201d.<\/p>\n

I was stunned and shaken to my very core. I had never seen a watch that was such a powerful expression of total originality. It was simply breathtaking to behold. The timepiece\u2019s hyper-modern tonneau shape is achingly beautiful and as erotically charged as the body of Ferrari\u2019s 250 GTO. It is the perfect juxtaposition of lush concupiscent curving lines with sharp masculine super-aggressive angles. Says Mille, \u201cI arrived at the shape one night when I couldn\u2019t sleep. I was trying to create a form that would sit perfectly on the human wrist, and that had a certain organic sensuality but also expressed my obsession with performance and technicality. I went to a hotel bathroom, unwrapped a bar of soap and began carving it with a knife. I carried this piece of soap with me back home. Eventually it broke and I created a\u00a0cardboard prototype. That\u00a0was\u00a0the\u00a0genesis.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the idea for a total new type of timepiece coalesced in Mille\u2019s imagination, so too did his philosophy for how it would be built. He explains, \u201cI wanted to create my first watch in the same way that an F1 team design their car. That is, to have the team creating the chassis, the team creating the engine, the team in charge of the body and aerodynamics and the driver all participating in the process. All with the understanding that the objectives had to be ultimate comfort, shock-resistance,\u00a0durability, accuracy, and\u00a0light weight.\u201d<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Richard Mille, July 13, 2010 in Rennes, France. (Photo by Thomas Lavelle for Revolution)<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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To achieve ergonomic comfort, an all-new tripartite watch case that followed the contour of the human wrist was created in collaboration with Donz\u00e9-Baume. Says a representative of\u00a0the famed Vall\u00e9e\u00a0de Joux case-maker, \u201cWhen we first received the plans, we thought Richard was crazy. There\u00a0has never been a more complex case ever. The radius at every single point is different. It was\u00a0simply crazy. But after we finished the first cases, they became our proudest accomplishment.\u201d Just\u00a0the proprietary grade 5 titanium\u00a0splined screws fastening the bezel, caseband and backcase together needed hundreds of\u00a0finishing and testing operations before it\u00a0was completed.<\/p>\n

But inside the watch was another revolution \u2014 it was the first timepiece that laid its engine completely bare. Says Giulio Papi, co-founder of Renaud et Papi, the high-complication mecca that worked on Mille\u2019s first movement: \u201cRichard wanted a watch that you [could] look into [and] see all the parts of the engine and how they functioned. And so we created a watch with a sapphire dial through which you could see every single component. Which meant every part had to be finished to\u00a0perfection. Because Richard wanted the movement as light and as shock-resistant as possible, we created the\u00a0very\u00a0first watch baseplate from\u00a0titanium, which we PVD-coated to give a stronger contrast\u00a0to\u00a0the other\u00a0parts.\u201d<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Mille laughs in retrospect, \u201cThese titanium baseplates were incredible-looking and performed fantastically, but they were a nightmare for the watchmakers. One touch with a screwdriver and they had to disassemble the movement, throw away the baseplate and start again. At some point we had a\u00a0rejection rate of 70\u00a0percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

To achieve the signature splines and sandblasted effect inspired by cast engine blocks that Mille had insisted on, Papi\u00a0and his team\u00a0had\u00a0to use two of watchmaking\u2019s most revered decorative techniques. Says\u00a0Papi, \u201cWe\u00a0used hand-frosting for the sandblasted effect and black-polishing, an art form usually reserved for polishing tourbillon bridges, for the splines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding the optimization of shock-resistance, it was the tourbillon bridge that became the focus of Mille\u2019s attention. He\u00a0explains, \u201cI wanted to redesign the tourbillon bridge to\u00a0resemble the suspension arm of an F1 car in both look and function. We\u00a0arrived at this two-sided skeletonized bridge that was very rigid horizontally but [that] allowed some vertical deflection when it experienced shock.\u201d Finally, because Richard is a racing driver and understands the importance of precise information when it comes to performance, he decided to feature both a power-reserve indicator and a torque indicator to give you a reading for the quality of the power in the mainspring. Says\u00a0Mille, \u201cOne of the greatest reasons for the diminishment in\u00a0accuracy in any watch and in particular the tourbillon is the reduction of torque in the mainspring as it unwinds. With this\u00a0indicator, you\u00a0know precisely the\u00a0quality of torque at\u00a0all\u00a0times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, the question that comes to mind is just how shock-resistant can a tourbillon possibly be despite all these many innovations.\u201d At my first meeting with Mille, his response would shock, awe, perplex and seduce me. Mille casually took off his watch \u2014 the world\u2019s most expensive production tourbillon \u2014 then flung it across the room. I\u00a0watched it bounce off the floor with\u00a0what I could only imagine to be an expression of abject horror. You\u00a0have\u00a0to\u00a0understand\u00a0that until Richard Mille, tourbillons were considered so delicate that Patek Philippe didn\u2019t even want them exposed to sunlight and they were handled with the most delicate of kid gloves. But Mille calmly retrieved the watch and passed it to me. I could only marvel at the fact that\u00a0not only was the\u00a0watch\u2019s case seemingly unmarred, but also, the golden balance wheel within the\u00a0tourbillon, the very heart of\u00a0the watch, continued to beat strongly unabated and with perfect consistency. Proof positive that Mille\u2019s message and\u00a0mission resonated with\u00a0irrefutably\u00a0truth.<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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