When a new record-breaking watch is about to be launched, the hype and build-up is usually palpable. Not so with yesterday’s announcement of the super-slim Richard Mille RM UP-01. But then Richard Mille is no ordinary man – or brand.
Dropping seemingly out of nowhere, the UP-01 joined the race for the world’s thinnest mechanical watch at warp speed. But this is unsurprising considering that RM’s collaborator for the watch is Ferrari.
A year on from becoming the prancing horse’s timing partner, at the start of the 2021 Formula 1 Season, the first timepiece from the two powerhouses has been revealed.
The watch measures a mere 1.75mm thick with a calibre thickness of 1.18mm and weighs just 2.87 grams.
It is an edition of 50 pieces costing $1.8m each and officially takes the title of the thinnest watch in the world.
The multi-year partnership with Ferrari is described by Richard Mille as “a meeting of minds based on shared values… the white heat of technology, combining age-old know-how with cutting-edge, state of the art innovation and passion.”
The initial watch was always going to be spectacular, but the fact that Richard Mille chose to join the race for ultra-thin caught many by surprise. According to an RM spokesperson: “The brand is forever pushing boundaries and setting new challenges. The idea for an ultra-thin watch where form is dictated by function is the result of several years’ reflection, development and is the ideal piece to launch as our first collaborative timepiece with Ferrari, showcasing both brands’ obsession for constant innovation.
“We do not yet know whether there will be further ultra-thin watches in the future, it has been such a challenge, we are in no rush to do so. The goal was always to produce an ultra-thin watch with the same Richard Mille values as our other models, which we believe we have accomplished.”
In recent years, the ultra-thin marketplace has been very much dominated by two players – Bulgari and Piaget – with each new launch looking like the last word on the subject.
When Piaget introduced the Altiplano Ultimate Concept in 2020 measuring just 2mm in height, it seemed like the ultimate challenge.
The brand itself, however, distances itself from active competition, CEO Benjamin Comar having previously said: “It is not a battle. Piaget is simply showcasing our long-established expertise in ultra-thin watchmaking, for which we are recognised the world over. We are following our motto which is to ‘always do better than necessary’. It is not a question of a world record or breaking a record, but pushing the limits.”
Bulgari, with a startling expertise in ultra-thin gained in less than a decade, holds several world records in the area and this year added another one to its arsenal with the Octo Finissimo Ultra standing at 1.8mm high.
Time and again, Bulgari has shown itself to be a master in the field of micro mechanics. On the announcement of the new watch, Antoine Pin, Managing Director of Bulgari’s Watch Division, immediately credited its creator for the achievement saying: “Records exist to be beaten and Bulgari highly congratulates Richard Mille for this new record. It is amazing to see this achievement and beyond that, the forthcoming enthusiasm for the world of ultra-thin. When your record is beaten by the best, the normal reaction is to try harder to take back the first position – like in sports.
“Bulgari started 10 years ago [with ultra-thin] and opened the path to others. Few among the best have made a breach on this direction, because it is really difficult, complex, complicated: Piaget, Audemars Piguet and now Richard Mille [have all done it]. We can’t wait to learn more about the RM-UP-01-Ferrari. It is a super healthy competition, extremely stimulating for the teams.
“Each maison has to find its way to be consistent with its spirit. Bringing a new and different know-how is part of the corporate culture. At Bulgari, we chose to define Octo Finissimo Ultra as a gate, linking [the] tangible world to a digital ecosystem. It took three years of unprecedented engineering, research and development and eight patents to design and craft our eighth world record for the eighth year in a row. The patents relate to the watch glass assembly, barrel structure, oscillator module, differential display, modular structure, bracelet, bimetal case middle-mainplate/caseback, as well as the Bvlgari Singvlarity technology. Being able to sell this year the first pieces is a real source of pride of all the teams.”
When it comes to utra-thin, every last micrometre counts, so it is truly mind-boggling to see that Richard Mille has chosen not to use the caseback as the baseplate for the watch. Instead, the brand has opted for a standalone calibre developed with Audemars Piguet Le Locle (formerly Renaud et Papi) with many of the components in titanium to increase strength.
According to Richard Mille, durability was always paramount, a brand spokesperson saying: “Whilst the form is completely new for the brand, the watch has still been subjected to the same rigorous testing processes as any other other model. The bezel and monobloc caseback are constructed in grade 5 titanium offering the best performance in the ageing and torsional tests and the watch can withstand a load of 12kg. It is made to be worn everyday, as are all RM timepieces.”
There is an extra flat barrel and super-fine hairspring, while the patented titanium escapement, redesigned to reduce thickness, features a variable inertia balance wheel. The watch boasts 45 hours of power reserve and 10 metres of water resistance.
Within the 51mm x 39mm x 1.75mm titanium case is a (mostly) titanium dial. An hour and minutes sub-dial sits at 12 o’clock, while at 1 is an aperture through which the balance wheel can be seen (both are covered by a super thin sapphire crystal), the winding mechanism is at 7 and is operated by a special key, and a function selector (winding or setting) is at 11. Ferrari’s Cavallino Rampante takes position at the bottom right of the dial.
Julien Boillat, Technical Director for Cases at Richard Mille, explained: “For such a project, it was necessary to set aside all the knowledge we had amassed over years of practice and every conceivable standard of watchmaking. This is precisely what we did throughout our collaboration with the laboratories of Audemars Piguet Le Locle. Shaving off those last tenths of a millimetre of thickness was an extremely demanding and lengthy process.”
What we will see from Richard Mille’s ultra-thin technology in the future is still a matter of debate, but judging by the ambition shown in the 21-year history of the company, plus the engineering prowess of Ferrari to draw on, safe bets would be that there are already some legendary watches in the making.
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