Gentlemen,
I recently had the chance to be
able to hold an exceptional Richard Mille reference in my ‘delicate’
hands. Indeed, it is not every day that we can admire such a marvelous
masterpiece from a brand which models are already quite unique in
watchmaking. I thought we could have a closer look at it, as an aside
from the rush of the salons. It is the
Richard Mille RM056-01
Sapphire Crystal, in “full”
sapphire.
INTRODUCTION
TO EXCELLENCE“Full" — well, not
completely — as the gear trains, hands and other elements of the caliber
are still made of metal.
From the 3 (maybe 4 if we
count the last anniversary model) all-Sapphire references presented by
Richard Mille, the -01 we have a look at in this thread is definitely my
favorite one: the addition of a
sapphire mainplate
together with the removal of the chronograph module leave the tourbillon
as the king of the show. This seems the right balance to
me.
As a reminder, it all started in January 2012
when the first version, the
RM056 Sapphire
Spilt-Second (with a Titanium mainplate) was presented during the SiHH
in a 5-piece limited edition.
One
year later, the
RM056-01 I wish to talk about here
was presented in another 5-piece production run. As I said, the main
evolutions from the RM056 were the removal of the Split-second feature
and the replacement of the Titanium baseplate by the Sapphire
one.
In
2014, for Watches and Wonders this time (underlining by the way the
stronger and stronger importance of this event in the watchmaking's year
schedule), the third version, the
RM056-02, was
unveiled. This time it was again a “tourbillon-only" caliber but
designed on the basis of the cable suspended movement used in the
ultimate RM027-01 Rafael Nadal. This version was produced in 10
examples.
Finally,
an additional 10-piece version of the first one (RM056 Sapphire
Spilt-Second) was produced this year to celebrate the
10th
anniversary of the collaboration between the Formula 1 driver Felipe
Massa and Richard Mille (we talked about it here:
www.watchprosite.com
).
These
4 projects led to a series of watches with a finish that is second to
none, and a beautiful and rare (in this industry) visual
lightness. When I said this is a major Richard Mille project, it is not
only about the caliber's technical nature (other RM references are more
complicated, though not that much) but about the
perfect
symbiosis between the artistic and Sapphire crafting areas.
The brand is already a watchmaking specialist in drilling and working on
very unusual and of the hardest materials (Alusic, Lital etc...). This
most valuable experience and tools are plainly used to create the RM056
line-up cases.
When I was given the great opportunity
to observe and admire this RM056-01, I was not only looking at the
material transparency but at all the details and the way they interact,
visually in this watch. This is something I'm eager and willing to
detail in the next part.
THE
WATCHStarting with the case's dimensions:
all of the generations are 50.5 x 42.7 mm. Nevertheless, the RM056 was
19.25mm thick, whereas this -01 (as well as the -02) drops to 16.75mm
with the removal of the Split-Second
complication.
The
bezel and caseback are made of two 2.5mm thick ergonomic sapphire
plates. For someone who is used to seeing RM watches, it is unusual to
see a one piece "glass & bezel" part as, usually, each are made
of two elements of different nature: a sapphire glass inserted in a
Titanium or other metallic frame (and a seal of
course).
As
you can imagine, the main difficulty is to master the manufacturing
(cutting and milling) of this particularly-hard sapphire material (made
of Aluminum oxide crystals with a melting temperature point of 2030°C).
Indeed, sapphire can be easily broken during the process and is not
repairable.
The
crafting session of a single case (bezel, caseband and caseback) needs
1,000 hours of work to be performed completely, including 350 hours of
polishing! In addition, there are many adjustments and tool changes for
each of the 5 pieces produced.
To
give an idea, the abrasion resistance of synthetic sapphire is 8 times
greater than that of steel.
In addition to the whole
case,
the baseplate, the central bridge and the central wheel
are also made of sapphire. This gives you an idea of the
performance and how this watch is much more than a sapphire
block.
All the sapphire parts of the RM056-01 are treated with
an anti-glare coating.
Mechanically,
we now come to a secondary element of this exceptional reference. The
watch gathers some "ingredients" we find in many of Richard Mille's
watches: the power reserve (around 70 hours) and torque indicators and
the function setting selector (Wind, Neutral, Hands) which is activated
via the coaxial pusher located in the crown.
Finally,
the translucent strap is called Aerospace Nano: the main characteristic
I could observe is that it is soft and a little
elastic.
THOUGHTSThe
least I can say is that it was the kind of experience we may not be
able to live often, so I was really willing to share it with you
here.
The way the Sapphire parts look is far more
than just transparency. For instance, all the engraved wordings (laser?)
appear in a grey/white color on the sapphire surfaces and look
beautiful: they are light looking, and are transparent too. This is very
hard to express but it is completely coherent in the way it is
decorated. Each of the markings made in the sapphire material are
decorations.
Then
you add the "suspended" mechanism which is floating like a cloud:
indeed it is difficult to see, at first sight, where the movement is
linked to the baseplate. Regarding the tourbillon — the gears seem to be
connected with each other but they don't seem to be attached to the
watch.
Finally,
the finishing of the steel parts such as the tourbillon or the barrel's
bridges is absolutely of the highest standards in traditional high-end
watchmaking. I have a good close range sight and I wanted to see if it
was like what we are used to seeing: of course it is not worked exactly
as traditional bridges are (the tourbillon's bridge is opened in the
middle). However, the beveled and polished parts are top-notch and
without
flaws.
CONCLUSIONIn
conclusion, Richard Mille is a young watchmaker (15 years) which has
already succeeded in creating a strong brand image and DNA with its
modern classic tonneau-shapes cases, which is highly skilled when coming
to technical choices and applications but also when it comes to this
sector's finishing mastery.
I tried to share my
experience and hope I could succeed showing what it is like to bring to
fruition such a project.
If it was a regular model in
the collection, I would want to get one for sure. The way it looks, the
decoration, the visual lightness and the immersion it provides are
second to none. I thought about this watch several days after trying it,
as if I could afford it. The experience feels so good when you find
something to dream about.
Cheers,
Mark
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