Seventh Heaven
Elegance, beauty and comfort. Hardiness and intricate craftsmanship. Richard Mille’s latest ladies’ timepiece proves that sometimes, a woman can have it all
Restrictive frocks, impossible heels, torturous undergarments… Far too often, women are expected to sacrifice comfort in the pursuit of beauty and elegance. When it comes to decorating the wrist, however, a lady need make no such concessions — if she chooses to wear a Richard Mille wristwatch, that is.
Founded in 2001, Richard Mille’s philosophy is based upon delivering cutting-edge technical innovation, exquisite artistry, architecture and handfinishing, inventive lightweight materials, and best-inclass ergonomics. Feather-light and so comfortable the wearer barely knows there’s a timepiece on their wrist, Mille’s watches have repeatedly been worn during intense, high-impact competition by sporting greats including Rafael Nadal, Felipe Massa, Bubba Watson, Yohan Blake and Romain Grosjean.
That athletes of this stature can perform at their best — even setting world records and taking international titles — while wearing a Richard Mille watch is testament not only to the timepieces’ hardiness, but their outstanding ergonomics. The brand’s eponymous founder says he warns prospective customers that they won’t be able to go back to other watches once they’ve tried one from his marque, such is the addictive one-of-a-kind comfort of a Richard Mille watch.
Launched at January’s SIHH watch fair in Geneva, Mille’s latest ladies’ offering is a gem-set black ceramic edition of the RM 07-01 model. It’s the first ceramic-cased watch where diamonds have been set directly into the ceramic (with the help of 0.25mm red-gold prongs, implanted into the case), rather than being attached to metal plates. “After our work on setting gems in Carbon TPT we wanted to extend this innovative setting technique to new materials. We naturally gravitated to ceramic, because it had never been done before,” Cécile Guenat, Richard Mille’s technical director for jewellery-making, explained of the thinking behind this novelty.
He may be one of watchmaking’s leading innovators, renowned for using methods and materials inspired by advances in motor racing and aeronautics, such as graphene (a nano-material six times lighter and 200 times stronger than steel), gold carbon-tpt and gold quartz-tpt (fusions of gold, quartz and carbon), aerospace-grade titanium, and translucent carbon nanotubes. But Mille says he eschews gimmicky materials, insisting that any unique substances utilised be selected for their functionality, rather than mere marketing value. For the new iteration of the RM 07-01, Mille’s development team chose to work with black tetragonal zirconia polycrystal (TZP) ceramic as the case material. TZP is an extremely fine grain ceramic of exceptional hardness, resulting not only in a beautiful matte finish, but offering supreme damage-resistance.
The result is perhaps one of the most robust gem-encrusted women’s watches on the market. It may be elegant, but it is by no means delicate — inside or out. Mille is in the habit of throwing his watches at a wall to demonstrate their case strength and the resilience of the movement. On that topic, the RM 07-01 is powered by automatic in-house Calibre CRMA2, built atop a baseplate and bridges hewn from Grade 5 titanium, with the black onyx and diamond-set red-gold dial forming the movement’s centerpiece.
Each Richard Mille watch is the result of punctilious research and development carried out over many years, in order to create a strictly limited number of timepieces. Economies of scale are non-existent, causing pricing to be stratospheric. (Mille says large-volume production is antithetical to his vision and believes putting huge effort into innovating small-run timepieces is one of the key factors that lend his brand legitimacy.) But imagine if you could have a seven-inch Louboutin heel that was as comfortable and ‘knockabout’ as a Nike Air Max, while retaining its elegance and craftsmanship. Wouldn’t that chimera be worth paying a premium for?
That’s just what you get here — albeit, in horological form. Elegant aesthetics and comfort, hardiness and artisanal craftsmanship combined. Sometimes, if she has the wherewithal, a woman can have it all.