“We are known for our incredibly technical, high-performance watches that draw inspiration from the automotive and aeronautics industries, even though women’s watches have represented a considerable percentage of our sales for several years now” admits the eponymous founder of Richard Mille.
“We needed a modern, creative and talented young woman to inject new energy into our status quo and take the women’s collection to new heights. It was Cécile Guenat,” the brand’s Ladies’ Collection Director, “who met this challenge by overcoming technical obstacles, freeing herself from consensus and establishing a unique and resolutely contemporary style” – Richard Mille
The fruit of Cécile’s labour is the slim, elegant, visually stunning and technically innovative RM 71-01 Automatic Tourbillon Talisman collection which has ten variations with either red gold or white gold cases. The collection features the unique sculptural qualities of fine art jewellery, embellished with diamonds, mother-of-pearl, onyx, red gold, and black sapphires; all this hand-set in a very small area arranged on several levels.
“My work is the fruit of very different influences. In designing this collection, I drew not only on Art Deco, but on the Tribal arts—masks, African sculptures, etc.—whose impact on all great modern and contemporary artists has been enormous. The contrasts, geometry, and sacred character of these objects fascinate me all the more because they prefigured today’s design through the fusion of content and form,” says Cecile Guenat, Ladies’ Collection Director.
On the technical side, this collection debuts the Calibre CRMT1, the first ever tourbillon movement developed in-house by the brand. It incorporates a new automatic, high-performance mechanism, that is slim and ultra-light.
“The first challenge was to produce an automatic tourbillon movement that could be housed in the narrow, curved case of a RM 037. The second was to meet all our standards in terms of performance, be it chronometric results, automatic winding or shock resistance,” explains Salvador Arbona, Technical Director for Movements.
“Its architecture is unobtrusive enough to bring the dial, hands and accessories to the fore” – Salvador Arbona, Technical Director for Movements
Each dial, a mere 0.9 mm in thickness, encases the skeleton movement which includes the all-new automatic tourbillon. The skeletonised baseplate features microblasted grade 5 titanium. The free-sprung balance offers better reliability in the event of shock. The regulator index is eliminated, and a more accurate and repeatable calibration of inertia is made possible thanks to 4 small adjustable weights located directly on the balance wheel.
Each of the ten different designs are limited to just five pieces. Their price is set at US $425,000 each and is available only at Richard Mille boutiques worldwide.
