Richard Mille

gls
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Then here's what's amazing ...

After figuring it should be possible for it to weigh 23g, it's surprising to see a weight of 41g clearly shown on the scale! Are you sure there isn't a weighing pan or something that needs to be subtracted? In other words, what weight is registered after the watch is taken off that white weighing pan? If that white weighing pan weighed 20g then it would all make sense, because then the weight would be 41g-20g=21g.

Another way to look at it ... Suppose I could put the polyurethane strap on my titanium RM010. Then, my RM010 would weigh 65g - 5g - 7g=53g. Then, we'd be doing an apples-apples comparison of RM010 to RM035, since they would have the same strap. If so, then at 41g for the RM035 versus 53g for the RM035, the RM035 would not be so much better.

If the RM035 is really 41g, one has to wonder why the effort to create a new case out of the ultra-light magnesium-aluminum alloy. Without even developing a new case material, the RM010 could have been simply modified by removing the rotor, making the case thinner (as thin as RM035, since the rotor is gone), and with a polyurethane strap. If that were done, then without even resorting to magnesium-aluminum alloy, it would be possible to develop a new ultra-light manual wound watch based upon the RM010 with the following weight: 65g (RM010) - 5g (rotor) - 1.4g (thiner case - move savings than the 0.57g savings, since it's less titanium versus less magnesium-aluminum) - 5g (polyurethane strap) - 7g (titanium deployant)=46.6g.

So, such a watch at 46.6g would weigh not much more than the RM035 does a 41g, without even needing a magnesium-aluminum case!

If Richard Mille were to offer such a variant of the RM010 in titanium that is manual wind, with a polyurethane strap, and weighing 46g, I'd definitely interested, since it is only 5g heavier than a RM035.

On the other hand, if the RM035 actually weighs less, because maybe the white pan needs to be subtracted to yield 21g for RM035, then the RM035 starts to look much more interesting that the variant of the RM010 I was just mentioning.

By the way, I don't think there is any significant difference between that auction version and the production version. At least none of the differences would account for any weight difference.
Greg