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 WATCH

Starting 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.




THOUGHTS

The 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.


CONCLUSION

In 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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