|Reſlections| T ime
|Reſlections| T ime Trials Richard Mille’s new RM UP-01 Ferrari watch takes the ultra-thin chequered flag thanks to remarkable technical innovations. By Laurie Kahle Before Richard Mille unveiled its debut timepiece with Ferrari last summer, the speculation circled around which and how many complications the watch would feature given the extreme technical ethos of each brand. But the engineers at Richard Mille had a trick up their sleeves that no one saw coming: a time-only ultra-thin watch that set a new record at only 1.75mm thick, beating out Bulgari’s 1.8mm-thick Octo Finissimo Ultra, launched earlier this year. The notion for the RM UP-01 pre-dated Richard Mille’s 2020 partnership discussions with Ferrari. According to Yves Mathis, production director at Richard Mille, the concept for the watch was presented to Ferrari executives as something Mille had been working on that they could get across the finish line together. The 10-year deal was officially sealed in January 2021. Given the goal of reaching a specific dimension of 1.75 millimetres, mechanics and technical innovation dictated the UP-01’s unorthodox aesthetic, which makes a radical departure from Richard Mille’s signature beefy, three-dimensional, skeletonised movements with inyour-face technicity. To make the watch and movement as thin as possible, Mille’s hallmark tonneau shape was turned horizontally to straddle the wrist at 51mm across and 39mm from top to bottom in brushed grade 5 titanium, evoking an American Express Platinum card. The time display with hours and minutes (no seconds) indicated by hands that are integrated with the movement is front and centre at the top of the watch, with the balance wheel visible to the right. Because a traditional stem-winding system with a crown would be too bulky, engineers devised a novel manual-winding system with two disc-like crowns – one for winding and one for setting – integrated into the front of the case. PHOTOS © RICHARD MILLE 38 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
They are not watches to be put in a safe. Even if the price is extremely high, [our clients] are not afraid to wear them” – Tim Malachard of Richard Mille Black ceramic inserts protect the bezel from wear and a special winding tool is provided to speed the winding process, but you can also do it with a finger. Two sapphire crystals, scaled down to two-tenths of a millimetre, protect the time display and the pulsing regulating organ with balance and spring assembly. Ferrari’s iconic prancing horse, finely laser engraved in black subtly makes the Ferrari connection. Tapping the expertise of its partner movement specialists at Audemars Piguet Le Locle, Richard Mille developed a patented masterpiece movement measuring 1.18mm thick and weighing 2.82 grams with a 45-hour power reserve. According to Salvador Arbona, Richard Mille’s technical director for movements, the main movement innovations are the extra-flat barrel, measuring less than 1.18mm thick, with an extremely thin hairspring; and a patented, ultra-flat escapement with a dart-free anchor that has an elongated fork fitted with new horns. The titanium balance wheel is another first for the brand. The baseplate and skeletonised bridges are also made of grade 5 titanium to guarantee perfect flatness and strength to ensure optimal functioning of the going train. “The real challenge was making sure there was no contact between the movement and case construction,” Arbona says. Rather than employing the case back as a baseplate to shave off millimetres, as others had done before, they were determined to have the complete movement independently suspended in the case to enhance shock resistance. Ferrari brought its input to details such as the material choice of grade 5 titanium, the font used for numbers and lettering, the style of the hands and, naturally, the finely etched rendering of its famous cavallino, in such detail that you can see its muscle contours under magnification. Despite the lack of complications, such as a tourbillon or chronograph, the UP-01 was an even more audacious technical undertaking that required ground-breaking thinking and years of R&D work, which included dozens of prototypes and more than 6,000 hours of development and laboratory testing. Julien Boillat, Richard Mille’s technical director for cases, comments that everything they had learned over the previous 20 years at Richard Mille was “thrown out the window” as they started the project from a blank piece of paper. He does, however, point out some aesthetic cues that stay true to the brand’s codes, such as the 13 spline screws that hold together the case, the familiar tonneau shape and an array of finishing techniques, including bevelling, as well as satin, polished and micro-blasted finishing. Whatever you say about the RM UP-01, don’t call it a “concept” watch. Richard Mille is producing 150 pieces intended to be worn and enjoyed. And it proved its mettle through exhaustive testing that included water resistance to 10 metres, a 10-year accelerated ageing of parts to test wear, torsional tests, flex tests and shock tests, including the demanding Charpy Impact test, which certifies G-force resistance to acceleration exceeding 5,000 Gs. They even attached 12kg weights to the strap to test the rigidity of the case, which is enhanced by a titanium insert in the strap. “Richard Mille’s philosophy since day one, since the RM-001, has been that every watch we make is to be worn day in and day out, every day,” says Tim Malachard, Richard Mille’s marketing director. “They are not watches to be put in a safe. Even if the price is extremely high, [our clients] are not afraid to wear them.” For the brand’s founder, Richard Mille, the affinity between the two marques is natural and powerful – exemplified in their shared passion for motorsports, leading-edge technologies and outstanding performance and engineering. “For us, it’s a dream to be here in Maranello,” Mille said at the inaugural celebration next to Ferrari’s Fiorano Circuit test track, referencing the nostalgic image of the famed red-brick factory entrance with the bright yellow Ferrari sign. “Mille watches would never be what they are if we did not have this true love for cars.” richardmille.com CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 39
