Words: Anna Galbraith
In the watchmaking world, Richard Mille is a force to be reckoned with. Counting tennis champions, athletes and polo players among its creative partners, the luxury Swiss brand has always sought out ambassadors of the highest calibre — working closely with such individuals to create its inimitably innovative timepieces – including the RM 62-01 Tourbillon Vibrating Alarm Airbus Corporate Jets.
Despite the obvious difference in scale between a watch and an aircraft, Richard Mille believes that both are highly similar in terms of their functions, requirements and processes. Sophisticated structures, meticulous engineering and stringent certifications shape both — and this grade 5 titanium, brightly coloured tourbillon created in partnership with Airbus celebrates those similarities. The ability of Richard Mille’s watches to function in hostile conditions, to resist considerable forces and to withstand wear and tear has even led them to test their innovations by subjecting them to a ‘torture chamber’ during manufacture.
Launched in 2016, the collaboration between Airbus Corporate Jets and Richard Mille had already borne fruit in the form of the RM 50-02 Tourbillon ACJ. The technical prowess exhibited by the mechanism inside this watch is a breath-taking illustration of both the superlative engineering and shared values the two companies have in common. The latest iteration of the relationship is no different – this time boasting a double bezel — a feature also sported on the caseback. Resting on a satin-polished titanium bezel, the second bezel is milled from a block of Carbon TPT to a thickness of just 1.8 mm.
The choice of these materials transcends merely aesthetic considerations: the titanium/Carbon TPT pairing provides an optimal weight to stiffness ratio in the functional context of the RM 62-01. This combination ensures that vibrations produced by the alarm will be transferred to the wrist and deflected from the movement — protected by the structure of the watch itself.
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