Richard Mille RM027: The Lightest Tourbillon

The essence of the ‘Lightness of Being’ is that events are not repeatable. The mundane, the expected, the repetitive nature of life weighs you down; you become heavy. Just when you thought you had seen it all, just when you wondered where Richard Mille could go next, he comes right back at you with the lightest watch (including the strap) that you could hope to see, or feel. Lighter than the weight of the soul of the wearer, the RM027 watch is the definition of lightness in every sense. In the belief that ‘light’ events only come along once, by chance, and that when that moment comes along you feel light; a joy in seeing the watch, strapping it to your wrist, is where the RM027 rises above other watches. You just cannot help smiling. Perhaps the RM027 is Pablo Neruda’s physical representation that "Laughter is the language of the soul".







To prove a point on the lightness and robustness of the watch, to show that it could be done, and to strap it to the racket arm of one of the world’s most powerful hitters of a tennis ball, Richard put it all on the line. A tourbillon, which Richard has always maintained is a good escapement for absorbing shocks, and a suspension mechanism (made of titanium aluminide) built into the case provides a watch capable of withstanding repeated 100 G-force shocks, and yet make the watch light enough so as not to burden the player, then you have the basic remit for the latest technical tour de force from Richard Mille.



Launched this week, in what was one of the most talked about secrets in the watch industry, the player to be wearing this ultra-light watch is none other than Rafael Nadal. Nadal hits the ball as hard as any other player in the world, and has been testing the watch under armbands for the past few months. It is not that the watch has to withstand a one-off shock of 100G, but continual and perpetual shocks over the course of several hours. The watch had better be working too as most of the world’s sports photographers will have images of the watch on high resolution camera’s, and if the watch does not measure the minutes and the hours, in line with other clocks over the scoreboard, then it is sure to be found out. For this reason, last I talked to the research and development team at Richard Mille, the watch had been tested up to 400G, and they were planning to try for 1000G. Seems improbable, but they were facing the testing with confidence. This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2010-04-03 07:53:02 This message has been edited by 219 on 2010-04-13 12:47:05