Richard Mille

I  have been eyeing an RM 010 for a while now. The boutique here in Dubai invites me to chat about RM, the brand and what it stands for.
Sounded good till I noticed a speck of dust or perhaps metal shaving sitting right in the middle of an RM011 dial.

Upon further inspection (with a loupe) we found several more "dust bunny" like specks.

With such little production and high price one would assume that we are paying a lot for quality control.

A one off perhaps? But for the amount being made and the price charged, I think such a blatant speck would have been caught by QC. It leads me to wonder what else could have slipped QC check.

Im not criticizing the watch just the unacceptable presentation.

... how did the sales manager explained to you? U got me worried, now, i took a magnifiar to check that the dial of my RM011 is clean :P

Karim

Because for 3 visits in a row he went on and on about how RM was in a way superior to AP,PP & VC in terms of QC because they made less watches and that theier watches were not only for time telling but also for looks and that explains why RM watches are exhibitioniost(spl?) In design. So that the owner can appreciate the
Immaculate detail and careful workmanship put into making these watches. So a couple of blemshes noticed by me without a loupe made him uncomfortable.

No message body

and the manager is rightly embarassed, as would I be, and as would Richard be.  Please do not let this example taint your obvious enthusiasm for Richard Mille watches.  It is a wonderful watch, just that this example should be held to the higher standard you and Richard Mille expect.

Andrew H

and hopefully the boutique will send feedback to the RM HQ.

While i feel ur disappointment and agree with u for what RM is & what they ask for one-

 if its an one off i m willing to forgive it

Nonetheless, i have a feeling RM is going down the FM route...

looking forward to ur follow up stories,
Ed~

I did not because I am more interested in the RM010 and RM011 models.

..and own a few, all of them have had issues. Winder coming out of an Rm002/date jamming & stopping the watch on an RM11/blob of green paint on the inside of an RM11 lemans/Winder coming out of an Rm11/winder coming out of RM10...

However I love the watches & eacn time they have gone back to RM they have been properly sorted & returned in perfect order & I have had no problems since. It appears to me that there is a problem in QC at RM in that the watches are simply not checked properly before they leave, I have said this before, and again here we see another exmaple of it. I find it very odd indeed because most of these problems are quite obvious and RM would save a lot more money checking them before they leave rather than having to sort issues later.

Anyway like I say once mine came back all have continued to work perfectly, and I love the watches so It is somehting I tolerate with RM!

This is what makes online forums more useful and beneficial. Others would choose to omit the truth.

Come to think of it, I also remember a glob of paint on one of the movements which ticked me off.

Thats right, its the paint glob that upset me more.

..honesty is always the best policy, I am obviously fairly easy going with these things, but I can totally understand that when one is paying $$$$$$$ for a watch it really simply is not on that it has obvious issues that should have been spotted before leaving the factory. I dont care what anyone here will say about 'oh all manufacturers have such problems'  or 'oh its something you put up wiht in a highly complex hand made watch blah blah'. And lets be clear I am not talking about faults that are not obvious or ones that develop over time,that I understand is a price to pay for handmade racing machines on thw wrist, no I am purely talking about issues that are obvious on first inspection.

Quite simply NO EXCUSES...the amount of watches RM produces he could simply employ one person fulltime to check each watch with a loupe before shipping, check the winder doesnt come out in your hand & that the thing will actually change the date without stopping..

If I was Richard I would be fuming that watches turn up at boutiques with dust & paint spots that are quite obvious under a loupe...it doesnt exactly promote the ethos of perfection the brand is built on and certainly at the price point its unacceptable.

Having said all that it would never stop me buying a RM watch as I have total confidence any issues are always sorted, and the beauty of the pieces are simply something I cannot find elsewhere.

I would always recommend an RM purchase to anyone fullstop

... I have a RM011 le mans in RG. This only thing bothering me until now, is when i set the time, i pull the crown, and it turns  a little bit without clutching the movement. And it bothers me like hell. But what kills me even more, is that when i set the time, i bring back the crown to its original position, the minute hands jumps 1 minute. Drives me nuts ...  might sound like nothing, but i say to myself, good for it that it looks so good, cuz otherwise, it wouldn't last look )

I fully agree with u, u've put things very well. The only thing is that u seem to be very forgiving. Maybe because u love the look and the design of the watch too much.
I believe that super design, with whats underneath the dial not up to expectations...  is unacceptable. Maybe a bit like a gorgeous woman, but not in good health.

Karim

The thing is that if you pretend to be on top of the watch chain it's just not enough to be the most expensive. If you use the metaphore towards formula 1 racing you should also adopt their quality management. High complexity means high quality control. Probably 80% of the purchase price is used to create an image. Shame that these incidents cause just the opposite effect and gone is most of the work and the money. Remember that bad publicity travels 10 times faster than good publicity. I bought the RM11 Le Mans RG and it stopped running after two weeks. It is a beautiful watch but this incident has already changed my perception of RM as a high quality brand.

But...... never too late to learn and turn it around!!! have a fantastic 2010 (if your date works ;-)

... to geneva to be fixed. The crown not clutching right the movement problem has changed to not clutching at all the movement ... So to wind the movement i have to shake it. Too bad, i really like that watch, unfortunatly, i am falling out of love however it looks nice
Happy new year to u too!

Karim

K,

Strange, they told me that my watch will be repaired in the UK...... not a typical watch country...

T

... to geneva. But now that ur telling me that, i will double check, maybe they will send it from geneva to UK.

K.

not having strict QC because they rn't suffer from massive recall/repair orders!?  which is just wired. 


I m curious to know what mr RM ll respond since there r a number of ppl close to him in this forum.


Always good to hear honest feedbacks,
Ed~