WE HAVE LIFT-OFF
Following a decade-plus friendship, Pharrell Williams collaborates with Richard Mille for a timepiece that’s simply out of this world
IT WAS A song that caught Richard Mille’s attention when Pharrell Williams made reference to the eponymous brand in his 2005 song “Can I Have It Like That”. From that sparked a longstanding friendship, culminating in an exciting collaboration to cap off 2019 in style.
Williams looked to his childhood for inspiration for this latest timepiece – he had a fascination with looking up at the sky and a particular fondness for space. The RM 52- 05 Tourbillon Pharrell Williams features an intricate decorative dial, which depicts the view of
Earth in a reflection of an astronaut’s helmet visor, himself standing on Mars.
This dial requires hours of skilled work, relying on specialist painters, enamellers and engravers alike; the engraving, for example, required more than 15 hours of work per piece. The astronaut’s suit was airbrushed on using a special technique first developed with street artist Cyril Kongo, who previously lent his expertise to the bridges of the RM 68- 01. The RM 52- 05 comes to life with a combination of red and white gold, diamonds, Grade 5 titanium, carbon TPT, blue aventurine glass and brown cermet (ceramic and metal), with a crown that is modelled after a rocket capsule with rubber ring representing a Martian rover tire.
Its use of high-tech materials, handled in miniature, employ state- of-the-art technology, working synergistically with an engraver, enameller and painter, whose work are telltale signs of the unique brilliance that is a Richard Mille timepiece. The technical innovations of the RM 52- 05 tourbillon calibre are, without a doubt, innovative – and a scarce 30 pieces are available worldwide.