SPLASH OF COLOUR
Richard Mille’s latest collaborative timepiece may well give the brand some street cred.
am not a painter bound to a single space, nor to any particular surface .” Prominent graffiti artist Cyril Kongo has an apt description of the nature of his work, but even he could not have expected his painting to find its way to where it recently has – on the RM 68-01 Tourbillon Cyril Kongo timepiece.
The collaboration was birthed from Richard Mille’s desire to introduce contemporary art to fine watchmaking – as if every Richard Mille timepiece isn’t already a veritable miniature example of kinetic art. And although Kongo isn’t one to be restricted by his canvas (or lack thereof), it was a definite challenge to transform the usually largescale, free-spirited style of graffiti art into something that would fit on a space only approximately five centimetres square. It took a whole year of experimentation and development to create the unique painting technique and tools that Kongo required to work in miniature. This includes a special airbrush that dispenses single droplets of paint for utmost precision, as well as a palette of indelible paints, in the hues
The collaboration was birthed from Richard Mille’s desire
to introduce contemporary art to fine watchmaking.