RICHARD MILLE - At the Net

IW Magazine - 1st December 2011

 Y-Jean Mun-Delsalle

Since the conception of his brand, Richard Mille has been experimenting with the concept of weight reduction in high-end watchmaking. When he first presented tourbillons with titanium and ALUSIC cases and carbon base plates, he had to fight against preconceived notions of value. For many, a lightweight watch could not be considered a luxurious timepiece. But connoisseurs soon appreciated these watches for their mix of extreme lightness and the best that technology had to offer.

While starting his line as the “Formula One of watchmaking,” Mille has since expanded his reach, notably into the world of tennis, successfully transposing his high technology and futuristic materials into purity of design and creative beauty. Perhaps design was a skill he learned during his experiences at jewelry houses Mauboussin, Repossi Joailliers and Baccarat.

Richard Mille decided to create a watch so light and tough that Nadal would accept to wear it during all his matches. © Ella Ling/Richard Mille

His watchmaking approach marked a rupture in watchmaking history that revolutionized the way in which people viewed time and timepieces, and is in fact modeled much in the same way an engineer builds a Formula One car to create watches that are rigidly constructed using strong, and light materials.

Meeting Nadal

Introduced by a mutual friend in 2008, Rafael Nadal explains that he met Mille after a tennis match.

“He had a watch on that I found intriguing, since I had never seen anything like it before: the shape, color, material, look of the mechanism inside,” he explains. Mille notes “it was a match made in heaven, since I prefer to work with people who are not only amazing in their particular discipline, but also enjoyable and inspiring to work with.”

It was a matter of chance and circumstance as when they met, Nadal’s contract was about to expire and no new sponsorship plans had been made.

Nadal wasn’t convinced at first, worried about the effects of a timepiece’s weight on his game. © Ella Ling/Richard Mille

“If I had to interview all kinds of sportsmen and make a big effort, collaboration would never work,” explains Mille. “There are times to push forward, moments to relax, or just to wait patiently until all the pieces fall into place. This organic approach to work and life is in my view the only natural way to proceed.”

As with Felipe Massa, who has worn a Richard Mille watch in all his Formula One races since 2004, Mille decided to create a watch so light and tough that Nadal would accept to wear it during all his matches. Nadal wasn’t convinced at first, worried about the effects of a timepiece’s weight on his game.

“I want it to be there, but I don’t want to notice or feel it at all until I need to. The watch can’t attract my attention, either by its presence on my wrist or by being flashy,” he adds.
Mille sought out Giulio Papi (from Renaud & Papi fame) and his team with specifications for the world’s lightest mechanical watch that weighed less than twenty grams, strap included, featuring a tourbillon mechanism that could withstand extreme shocks.
He was told that it wasn’t possible. However, this didn’t dissuade Mille, who felt he could again prove that radical weight reduction was entirely compatible with efficiency and accuracy.

Defying Gravity

The result was the innovative manual-winding RM 027 Tourbillon, the first Richard Mille watch named after a tennis player, developed in close collaboration with Nadal, who tested several prototypes during training sessions before publicly appearing with it strapped to his wrist at Roland Garros in 2010.

In an extremely limited edition of fifty pieces worldwide, it was sold out within a period of 24 hours, even before its official launch. It is one of the lightest mechanical tourbillon wristwatches in the world, weighing only thirteen grams without strap.

And it is a technical marvel. The 3.83-gram 48-hour power reserve movement is made from high-strength and lightweight titanium and LITAL, a high-lithium-content alloy containing aluminum, copper, magnesium and zirconium, possessing a density of 2.55. Although lithium, the lightest element, is very unstable and difficult to get refined into a pure form, it adds incredible robustness without the weight when combined with aluminum.

This alloy is used in the construction of the Airbus A380, helicopters, rockets and satellites, as well as in F1 racecars.

The RM 027 Tourbillon is the first Richard Mille watch named after a tennis player. © Richard Mille

Protecting the tourbillon movement, the case, composed of a resistant carbon-based composite, provides a robust and resilient shell. The back bezel and case band are monobloc to ensure total lightness, while the front bezel and flange in carbon show remarkable stiffness and torsional rigidity. The glass is in Grilamid, and an ultra-light strap in polyurethane offers flexibility and comfort.

Several years of research and development went into creating this model. There are no superfluous elements as every screw, pinion, lever and spring must fulfill its purpose. Even the famous spline screws used in the movement and highly visible on the case exterior are the result of months of development and investment, and each screw requires more than twenty operations during its manufacturing process.

Round Two

After Nadal’s 2010 victories in the masters tournaments—Roland Garros, Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows—all while wearing the RM 027, Richard Mille launched its follow-up tribute this year. Nadal actively participated in the design concept of the new watch, the RM 035.

“My input concerned my demands about what felt good on my wrist, how the strap should be, the weight question—all of which are extremely important for me,” he explains.
“I know exactly what I want as a player even if I am not a watchmaker! In the end, it weighs only 35 grams, so it is perfect for me, and the case is the same shape and feel as the RM 027.”

The RM 035 is powered by the 55-hour power reserve skeletonized caliber RMUL1 beating at 4 Hz and weighing just 4.3 grams,. In addition, it’s the first manual-winding movement in the Richard Mille collection to have Chronofiable certification.

Developed at the Centre de Contrôle de la Fiabilité de l’Horlogerie Suisse, now the Laboratoire Dubois SA, the Chronofiable test exposes timepieces to artificial accelerated ageing simulating the equivalent of six months wear over twenty-one days.

Engineered like a Formula One racecar where chassis and engine are developed in complete harmony, every RM 035 component has been constructed according to extremely strict specifications. For example, a casing ring is no longer used and the movement is set on chassis mounting rubbers fixed by four titanium screws.

The skeletonization of the RM 035 movement took one year to finalize to meet the rigorous standards of this certification. Numerous versions of the skeletonized titanium base plates were tested before the final form was chosen. The PVD-treated skeletonized titanium base plate, with combined bridges and titanium Titalyt balance cock, allows for excellent rigidity and accurate surface flatness. As the regulator index is eliminated, a more accurate and repeatable adjustment is made possible through four small adjustable weights located directly on the balance.

Richard Mille started his line as the “Formula One of watchmaking” © Richard Mille

The tonneau-shaped case is crafted from a highly rugged and light alloy called magnesium-aluminum AZ91, which is composed of 90 percent magnesium and 8.9 percent aluminum. An electro-plasma oxidation treatment follows a long and delicate machining phase, which results in a crystalline oxide ceramic coating with an elevated ratio of high-resistant composites.

“It has all the qualities that I like in the RM 027, with a slightly different look of the movement,” explains Nadal.

“I also like that the case is made of a superlight high-tech magnesium-aluminum alloy, while my RM 027 is made of a special composite. They are slightly different animals of the exact same family. Watches like the RM 027 and RM 035, specially created for me, become a little bit a part of you.”

Testing for Quality

Just as the RM 006 and RM 009 paying tribute to Massa were ultra-light in accordance with his requirements for a watch to not affect his physical reactions by its weight pulling on his wrist as he experienced high G forces around the racetrack, so the RM 027 and RM 035 had to deal with G forces that have very high irregular peaks due to abrupt, extreme movements and shocks typical of high-level tennis matches, and that go on for hours. Thus, numerous drop and stress tests were carried out, with regular striking of the watch on the engineers’ desktops and on Nadal’s wrist in real-world conditions over several months.

The RM 006, without strap, barely tips the scales at 43 grams (equivalent to a nine-volt battery) and the RM 009 comes in at a meager 29 grams—ensuring that they won’t weigh their wearer down. But with the RM 027, Richard Mille went even further in the featherweight stakes by entirely reworking the movement layout to rid it of all unnecessary weight, without reducing movement stability. The aim of the experimental use of materials was to create the lightest mechanical watch ever crafted, and a tourbillon model that stood up well to vibrations, accelerations, decelerations and shocks.

Mille says the RM 027 was very difficult to make.

“The special composite case is not like metal as it has quite a different temperature reaction coefficient, we couldn’t even use sapphire glass because Rafael didn’t want a single gram extra on his wrist. We had to use another special transparent composite material.”

Richard Mille watches act as a sort of lucky charm that have accompanied Nadal to tournament victory, so much so that he now won’t play without them now.

“It seems the watch and the development of my game have gone hand in hand since I have been wearing it.” Nadal says. Not surprisingly, he is quite satisfied with his relationship with Mille.

“We both need challenges to bring out the best in us, to make us achieve higher levels.”