Richard Mille’s Most Complicated Watch: RM 65-01

Richard Mille continues to produce the hypercars of the watch world.

One of the most exciting watch news of the recent period came from Richard Mille in mid-December. RM 65-01 is the most complicated watch ever released from Richard Mille, the price of watch is 310 thousand dollars. In addition to these, RM 65-01 is first self-winding split-second chronograph from Richard Mille and it will be also brand’s first seriallt produced watch with the complication. (This time it is not limited but it was produced in small numbers.)

RM 65-01 is not first chronograph of brand, first chronograph was RM 004 which unveiled in 2004; the in-house chronograph was RM 72-01 in 2007. The movement is notable for being a technically accomplished calibre produced by Vaucher, the respect movement specialist that’s a sister company of Parmigiani. The skeleton mechanism supported by  grade 5th titanium bridges and has 60 hours power reserve.

RM 65-01 is a proof of founder Richard Mille‘s theses, Mille: “Most brands use modern tools to make what are essentially replicas of 19th-century watches. That is like using today’s modern auto manufacturing tools to make Bugatti replicas.” While thinking about how to reveal his passion for speed with the “racing machine on the wrist”, he made the way to high-end material; thromposite-rich plasma black ceramic, alumina-enriched zirconia white ceramic, carbon nanotube, titanium and carbon fiber. In cooperation with the NTPT Factory since 2018, it reached the peak of the material revolution with the extra light Carpon TPT, which is created by compressing and baking carbon fiber strands as thin as 800 times the hair bristle for hours (normally used in rocket and speed vehicles) and never scratches. We also see this material on the case of the brand’s most complicated model, RM 65-01.

High-frequency movement running at 36,000 beats per hour that has an integrated split-seconds chronograph, making it one of the most sophisticated movements in Richard Mille’s collection. Timepiece has a slightly gimmicky feature: a button on the case flank that can be used to wind the watch. With this feature, requiring 125 presses to fully wind the mainspring. Quality control tests are of paramount importance for the Richard Mille; the quality control claim of the brand has been further increased with this watch: Tests such as impact, drop, 10-year accelerated aging process, water resistance tests, resistance to magnetic field tests and aging tests and activation of the fast setting process thousands of times were applied to watch.