A visit to the new Richard Mille Boutique Las Vegas
By: ED209 : November 2nd, 2013-15:08
Over a month ago, Richard Mille opened it's
second U.S. boutique at the Shops At Crystals on the Las Vegas
Strip. So during a recent weekend trip to Las Vegas I had
stayed at the Aria Resort and Casino that is part of City Center and
connected to Crystals. And during a busy afternoon I made a
visit to the new Richard Mille Boutique to check out the space and see their watch collection.
The boutique is located on the 2nd floor
across from the Mastro's Treeshouse and in between the Tiffany and
Louis Vuitton boutiques. I'm very familiar with Crystals and
as I walked closer to the boutique I remembered the location as it
now replaces the former De Grisigono Watch Boutique. The RM
boutique is set up very similar to the old boutique with a open space
but more glass sculptures and cases in the middle. At the
front of the boutique is a 7 foot sculpture of RM
movement.
I was surprised to see quite a few of the RM
Divers models including the RM028 and RM032. And not just the
standard divers collection, but many limited editions. The
RM028 on display in the front window was the Les Voiles de St Barth and made in a special
edition of 100 pieces. I haven't really seen the RM028 up
close before, and found that it definitely had a huge wrist presence due
to the 47mm diameter bezel, but it was wearable due to the lightness
from the titanium case. The yellow colored accents on the
dial, rotating bezel markers, crown and strap were very striking and
looks great. I know a certain TimeOut Moderator who would love
this yellow themed RM!
The RM032 Automatic Chronograph Divers watch
was massive with the 50mm bezel but I like the movement more than the
RM028. Just like the yellow, the red was visually striking. It has a new lock down guard to lock the crown in place. The
lock also is able to lock down the pushers to ensure the 300 meter water
resistance. The skeletonized dial on the RM032 is more
difficult to read with the two subdials for sub seconds and running
indicator. I thought that the RM032 was just a flyback
chronograph movement but learned from the boutique staff that it also
has a month indicator between the 4 and 5 o'clock
position.
Other watches on display was a dedicated glass case with the
RM59-01 Tourbillon Yohan Blake. The RM 59-01 was introduced
at this years SIHH and named in honor of the Olympic medal winner Yohan
Blake. It is limited to 50 pieces and features a case made of
translucent composite injected with carbon nanotubes. The case
has a yellowish green color which to me looked like algae or
mold. The shape of the case is asymmetrical which to me (along
with the colors) made this a strange looking watch. In
another back corner of the boutique was a dedicated space for the RM055
Bubba Watson and a RM038 which is one of my favorite watches in the
store. I got to handle these watches briefly but did not have a
chance to take closeup pictures.
On display was a piece unique RM 52-01
Tourbillon Skull nano-ceramic watch. The composite
nano-ceramic called TZP is used on the bezel and caseback and is
finished with a microblasted finish with polished edges. The
The RM52-01 has a manual winding tourbillon with a PVD treated titanium
baseplate. The skull is crafted in 5N red gold. What
makes the Las Vegas Boutique watch different is the precious stones set
into the skull dial. Also along the sides of the cases, 4
perpendicular bars on the RM case is also set with a pave of
diamonds. I got to handle this RM 52-01 for a few moments
(sorry I didn't take any pics because I was enjoying seeing this unique
piece) and although it's a beautifully crafted, it's not one of the
watches I would choose if I won big in Vegas. I'd prefer the
RM 038 Bubba Watson because the bridges and movement are more
interesting to me. I also don't associated the skull motif to
Vegas, I was expecting something with a casino
theme.
Overall the boutique feels spacious for a small
space, but more impressive were the large number of watches that the RM
Las Vegas Boutique had. And best of all the boutique staff were friendly and very knowledgeable about watches. It was definitely a good visit to see
some unique pieces and I'm hoping to visit again in the near future to
spend some more time looking at other RM
watches.