Page 69 - Forbes - Asia (July - August 2018)

PROMOTION

reflected in the breadth of sportsmen the grueling demands of his sporting
who have worn the RM 67-02 on their activity.
way to glory. These include luminaries To achieve this, the RM 67-02 has the
such as sprinter Wayde van Niekerk, distinction of being the lightest auto-
high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim, tennis matic timepiece in the Richard Mille
player Alexander Zverev, skier Alexis Pin- collection, weighing just 32 grams. The
turault and F1 driver Fernando Alonso. extreme lightness is made possible by
These are no ordinary sportsmen. the watch’s exclusive composite mate-
Olympic Gold medalist and world-record rials, thinness and ergonomic design.
holder for the 300 and 400 meters, Meanwhile, the in-house caliber housed
Wayde van Niekerk, is the only sprinter within is able to handle any situation in
to have run the 100 meters in under 10 top-level sport.
seconds, the 200 meters in less than 20 The CRMA7 caliber is protected by
seconds, the 300 meters in less than 31 a case made of the ultra-lightweight
®
seconds and the 400 meters in under 44 Carbon TPT and Quartz TPT , which
®
seconds. Alexander Zverev, meanwhile, ensures exceptional resistance to shocks
won his third Masters 1000 title of his despite the watch’s slim profile measur-
career in Madrid earlier this year, keep- ing a mere 7.80 millimeters. Crafted from
®
ing his ATP World No. 3 ranking in the Carbon TPT , the filigree rotor and white Alexander Zverev
process. gold drives the grade 5 titanium move-
ment. The baseplate and bridges are
A Long Association crafted from the same robust material
Richard Mille has had a long association and given a black and grey DLC coating.
t
t
with the sporting world, having collabo- Reflecting he complexity of he
rated with brand partners at the peak of design, a minimum of two hours of mill-
their disciplines. As early as 2013, the ing is required to create the extreme
brand worked with Jamaican sprinter skeletonization of a single baseplate.
Yohan Blake on a tourbillon watch made Several hundred hours are also required
of a carbon-nanotube composite featur- to program and calibrate the machines.
ing revolutionary ergonomics in the form The teeth of the movement’s gears uti-
of an asymmetrical shape. lize a highly original involute profiling
Indeed, among the more than 70 mod- that guarantees optimal transmission of
els in the RM collection to date, there are power from the barrel to the variable-
watches designed for specific sports, inertia balance wheel throughout the
such as regattas, or produced specially watch’s 50-hour running time.
for a single sportsman, such as rally The lines of the movement are com-
driver Sébastien Loeb or polo player plemented by the dial, which is machined
Pablo Mac Donough. Over the years, from a sheet of titanium just four tenths
the brand has built up a reputation for of a millimeter thick and finished with a Sebastien Ogier
combining technical excellence with a black DLC coating. To add another layer
sporting identity. of personalization, the dial is painted by
hand in colors representing the sports-
Pushing Boundaries man’s home country.
Richard Mille’s sporting partners have
amassed a stunning record of per- A Strap for Extreme Comfort
formances while wearing the brand’s Sportsmen have been at the heart of
watches over the past decade. This suc- Richard Mille’s research and develop-
cess has come about in no small part ment efforts since the start. Among the
because the timepieces are designed other insights gained is the importance
to fit like a second skin, working as one of a strap that affords extreme comfort
with the wearer. As such, ergonomics while having the ability to withstand the
and wearer comfort have always been most punishing conditions.
key priorities for the brand. The search for new levels of wearer
The RM 67-02 Automatic is the latest comfort is the driving force behind a
manifestation of this philosophy. For this new comfort band for the RM 67-02.
timepiece, Richard Mille has introduced The strap is Richard Mille’s answer to
a sporting quality to the ultrathin RM all expectations of maximum comfort
67-01. In particular, the watch was cre- demanded of by high-level sportsmen
ated to perform for the athlete under as they compete in the most trying Fernando Alonso