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The pilot and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said that perfection is achieved “not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” Anathema might be to the world of haute horlogerie, famed for its grand complications and myriad microscopic details, but Richard Mille’s RM 55-01 Manual Winding takes a different approach: stripping technicality down to its mechanical necessities.
At its ticking heart is the ultralight RMUL4 caliber, weighing less than 5 grams and housed within a case measuring 37.95 x 47.33 millimeters and just 10.75 mm thick. Its manual-winding system also dispenses with the oscillating weight, removing another layer between the wearer and the mechanics underneath, allowing light to flow freely through the movement.
(Courtesy of Richard Mille)
The mechanism uses a double-barrelled system designed to optimize torque over time. Its faster rotation rate puts less pressure on the teeth, pins and bearings, reducing friction and allowing for smoother, more regular energy transfer throughout its approximately 55-hours power reserve.
This energy is then transferred to a free-sprung balance with variable inertia beating at 4 Hz, equipped with a stop-seconds mechanism. Here, too, Richard Mille does away with convention. The traditional regulator, or index, is replaced by four small adjustable weights for greater precision and consistency, while the balance wheel’s inertia is adjusted through calibration rather than hairspring length, making the timepiece less vulnerable to shock.
(Courtesy of Richard Mille)
The same thinking extends to the materials. The calibre rests on a baseplate made of grade 5 titanium, an alloy borrowed from the aerospace industry and further microblasted, sanded and treated with a black PVD coating. The going train, meanwhile, is supported by three bridges, also made from grade 5 titanium, sanded and treated with Titalyt® for extra wear resistance.
The watch comes in three versions: Carbon TPT®, White Quartz TPT® and Grey Quartz TPT®. Used for the bezel, their unfinished damascene effect sits against the clean lines of the three-part tonneau case, offering both shock and scratch resistance without adding unnecessary weight. Microblasted and rhodium-plated hands glide above a complex four-part flange that brings together titanium, carbon fiber, and steel in a play of texture and relief.
For all that engineering, the result is remarkably restrained on the wrist, or at least as restrained as Richard Mille can be. Its mechanical workings remain on full display, but little appears to be there simply for the sake of being there.
(Courtesy of Richard Mille)
Perhaps that is where the Saint-Exupéry line finds its way back into the watch. The RM 55-01 makes a case for mechanical sophistication not through how much can be added, but through how much can be taken away without losing what matters.
