Yesterday (or early this morning, depending on where you live), Richard Mille held a rare world premiere event to announce a new timepiece, the RM 50-04 Tourbillon Split-Seconds Chronograph, alongside its partner F1’s Chief driver Alfa Romeo Team, Kimi Raikkonen. Held at the Capella Hotel in Singapore, this is the first timepiece to officially carry the colours of an F1 team.
The movement that powers the watch is the RM 50-03 movement, the brand’s hallmark that first appeared in the RM 50-03 released in 2017. The original watch was designed in collaboration with the McLaren F1 team. The movement itself weighs just 7 grams, which is achieved through the extreme skeletonization of the components and the use of highly specialized alloys such as a titanium-vanadium-aluminum mixture for the baseplate and bridges. Selected bridges are made of carbon fiber TPT and transverse brackets that support the entire movement and are attached to the strap. The advantage of this is that the movement is perfectly integrated with the case, further enhancing its shock resistance. The movement has been tested from RM 50-03 to 5,000 Gs.
The brand’s first split-seconds chronograph tourbillon was the RM 008, which is undoubtedly the first new split-seconds chronograph design of the 21st century. Since then, the movement has been refined with several improvements, such as a new column wheel with only 6 columns, making the operation more robust and reliable, and a new clamp design that improves the rattrapante operation, which also reduces the need for Amplitude effect. Split is activated.
Raikkonen spoke about wearing the best swiss watch while driving the C38 single-seater in an interview ahead of the watch’s release. “I’ve never really been a watch person because it’s uncomfortable and it never appealed to me. So I was a little skeptical when we signed the deal, I knew it was another watch brand, but when I got After the watch, I was very surprised. I’ve never actually used a watch in the past, but now, I don’t even notice it. What drives [Richard Mille] is a completely different philosophy. Now I don’t even notice that I When to wear it, it’s a good-looking watch, and it doesn’t have any weight. It fits me perfectly.”
He added that he also wore some other Richard Mille pieces during the test drive (including the RM 67-02 he wore before the interview), but on the F1 circuit (yet).
Timothée Malahard, Marketing Director at Richard Mille added: “This is exactly the partnership we want. This watch must not get in the way of the daily activities of the athletes we work with. Ergonomics and lightweight materials are what we used to achieve this performance. Tools, that’s why we work with drivers and partners like [Rafael] Nadal, [Romain] Grosjean, Kimi. We want the watch to be comfortable and out of the way.”