• The first women’s sports watch in the collection
  
• Only 36 grams, strap included
  
• 6 versions available

Richard Mille is proud to have always counted high-level sportsmen and women among the brand’s partners. As members of our large family, they are at the heart of developments that seek to continually roll back the limits of the feasible. To celebrate the release of our first women’s sports watch, the RM 07-04 Automatic Sport, Richard Mille asked six inspiring and influential athletes (Aurora Straus, Margot Laffite, Nelly Korda, Nafi Thiam, Yuliya Levchenko and Ester Ledecká) to share their experiences and develop and define the attributes of this watch.

Two motorsport icons, the world number two golfer, two track and field stars, and a Winter Olympics triple gold medallist are the Richard Mille partners who proudly wear the six models in the new RM 07-04 Automatic Sport collection. Perfectly adapted to the constraints of their various disciplines, the timepiece asserts pure performance and technical sophistication simultaneously.

The creation of the RM 07-04 Automatic Sport required three years of development because there were so many challenges: developing a new, very compact and skeletonised in-house automatic movement, guaranteeing high shock resistance, integrating the exterior perfectly into the movement while leaving its workings visible... “We did not take a minimalist approach in this design, we chose an airy movement that revealed its complexity at first glance. Offering a women’s skeleton sports watch is a gamble that few have dared to take. This collection is as much about aesthetics as it is about technicity,” explains Cécile Guenat, Creative and Development Director at Richard Mille.

The CRMA8 calibre is a new in-house automatic movement with hours, minutes and a function selector. To ensure the rigidity of the assembly, the baseplate and bridges are made of grade 5 titanium, supplemented by a black PVD treatment. To earn its sports credentials, the movement underwent a series of rigorous tests to confirm its resistance to 5,000 g’s of acceleration, a major feat for the most compact of all the calibres developed by Richard Mille. Hand finishing that includes polished angles, milled sections, micro-blasted sinks and satin-finished surfaces enhance the elegance of its uncompromising mechanics. The compactness of the calibre further accentuates the quality of the production, as it renders the assembly stage considerably more complex for the watchmaker, for whom there is not the slightest margin for error.

The function selector complication, emblematic of the brand, prevents stress on the winding stem. Combined with a Quartz TPT® pusher at 4 o’clock, a simple press allows the user to choose between the neutral (N), winding (W) or time setting (H) positions. Its kinematics also are perfectly visible because its assembly is inverted compared to the brand’s other selectors. The hand at 5 o’clock indicates the chosen function on a flange in grade 5 titanium. A part as finely worked as those of the movement, this crucial element in the architectural aesthetics of the piece brings balance to the whole and contributes to the symbiosis between movement and decoration. Depending on the version, the case is crafted of Quartz TPT® or Carbon TPT®. Characteristically for Richard Mille sports watches, the colour combinations of these ultra-durable technical composites exude energy, strength and emotion.

The identity of this collection, imbued with a thirst for sporting achievements and the euphoria of competition, is revealed through its colour palette. The colours, from black for the Carbon TPT® model to cream white, mauve, salmon pink, green or dark blue for the five Quartz TPT® pieces, do not in any way alter the intrinsic characteristics of these materials, namely their lightness, their non-allergenic properties, and their resistance to shocks, UV rays or wear.

Assertive in every way – ergonomically, visually, technically and in terms of its performance – each watch in this collection is as pleasant to wear on a daily basis as it is suited to intense sporting activity.

Lightweight – at 36 grams including its Velcro® strap – the new RM 07-04 Automatic Sport collection offers athletes the freedom to be at their very best in their disciplines. This collection of six watches symbolises perfect versatility and continuity in the growing world of women’s watches at Richard Mille, a world where elegance and refinement are combined with ultra-high performance and sporting prowess. Rising further to pass the few extra centimetres that make all the difference. Optimising your trajectory as tightly as possible to gain precious thousandths of a second. Making the right move, the one that allows you to commune with mountaintops. At the highest levels, nothing is ever left to chance.

Richard Mille is proud to count top-level sportsmen and women among its partners. The latter, all members of one large family, play a key role at the centre of the brand’s R&D efforts to perfect ever more technical, ever more astonishing watches. Anchoring this collaborative relationship on trust strengthens a shared desire to take up new challenges and achieve ever higher performance. Developing the brand’s first edition of women’s sports watches was a move both essential and self-evident. In this process, it was critical for sports partners to have an opportunity to assess the advantages of the new RM 07-04 Automatic Sport, which were designed with their specialities in mind.

Whatever the discipline, preparing for a competition leaves no leeway for uncertainty. Every gesture and movement is analysed. At the same time, an athlete must listen to his or her body to direct his or her efforts in the desired manner. This skilful balance serves the sole aim of achieving the greatest of feats when it counts.

Repeating the same gestures over and over again. Fine-tuning every detail. As a competition approaches, the athlete’s mind is focused to the point of obsession on the goal. Their entire being is mobilised in pursuit of this ambition. Physical, psychological and technical qualities gradually reach their peak thanks to countless hours of training. Depending on the discipline, speed, strength, endurance or flexibility may be called upon with singular intensity – and sometimes simultaneously.

The environment an athlete develops in must be perfectly attuned to this race for efficiency. Richard Mille has always endeavoured to adapt each of its models to the needs and feelings of its partners. It is in this spirit that the RM 07-04 Automatic Sport was imagined and dedicated to the brand’s sports partners.

These athletes, who excel in a wide range of disciplines, make up the Richard Mille sporting family. It’s a family where the human element is never eclipsed by performance, where each member stands out for his or her fierce will, devouring passion and limitless ambition. “Our partners are passionate people, willing to break the mould of their respective disciplines in order to succeed”, says Amanda Mille, Brand and Partnerships Director. “Our relationships are grounded in respect, communication, trust and mutual admiration. These are key to our development. They help us movetowards perfection.”

Richard Mille’s support for its athletes – in moments of grace and rocky periods alike – is unwavering. Tempered by a shared desire to achieve unparalleled performance, this ongoing relationship is reflected in the creation of watches that ceaselessly challenge the limits of watchmaking.

Two virtuosi of the magic where the rubber meets the road, a world number one golfer, two track & field champions and a Winter Olympics triple gold medallist... Six Richard Mille partners proudly wear the colours of the six models in the new RM 07-04 Automatic Sport collection.

Whether it’s Nafi Thiam, Yuliya Levchenko, Ester Ledecká, Nelly Korda, Aurora Straus or Margot Laffite, each of these extraordinary women gives her all, every day, in her commitments. Take Nafi Thiam, two-time Olympic, World and European champion in the heptathlon, a discipline considered the most complex in athletics. To meet the challenge of its seven different events, the Belgian national undertakes super-human preparation. This indispensable work behind the scenes also requires that she marshal tremendous mental strength in support of her ambition to excel at each event.

The wide range of skills means she has to be versatile and adaptable to any situation, qualities that inspired the design of the RM 07-04 Automatic Sport. As Nafi Thiam puts it: “My driving force is my passion. Every day when I wake up, my motivation is to go and train to try to be the best athlete I can be.”

Vice-champion of the world for the high jump world in London in 2017, Yuliya Levchenko also knows how to mobilise herself to achieve her goals. Breathing, meditation... her body must be at one with her ambitions to tirelessly clear a higher and higher bar. “It’s when I jump that I am most truly myself,” she confides. “The best moment is when I feel like I’m flying.” To fly higher and higher is her aspiration. It is as if time suddenly stands still... Yuliya, with her gravity-defying energy, is now taking off with the RM 07-04 Automatic Sport, the lightest watch in the Richard Mille ladies’ collection. And she perfectly embodies the very essence of this model.

Sport has been in the blood of the Korda family. Her parents are former tennis players, her brother is a rising star in this sport, her sister is a professional golfer... And Nelly Korda, who has been a Richard Mille partner since 2017, is no exception. When she was 14 years old, the American golfer succeeded in making the cut at the U.S. Open. She became professional at 17 years old. She won seven LPGA Tour tournaments – including the renowned LPGA Championship in 2021 – as well as the Olympic Games in Tokyo and reached No. 1 in the world ranking in 2021. She is only 24 years old and already has a prestigious track record.

« La montre, très légère, épouse parfaitement le poignet,
elle est très facile à porter. C’est littéralement une œuvre d’art, une pièce magnifique.
J’aime tous les détails que l’on peut observer à l’intérieur, la technique, les mécanismes.
J’aime l’accord du bordeaux, du rose et du blanc, la manière dont ces couleurs ressortent.
Je me sens tellement bien avec que c’est comme si la montre faisait partie de moi.
Elle reste très facile à porter en pratiquant mon sport.
Au golf, la précision et l’importance de chaque détail sont cruciales.
Et quand vous regardez les montres Mille, leur niveau de détails, leur précision, le travail accompli sur chaque pièce...
J’admire le degré de minutie qui distingue cette marque. »

At the age of 13, Yuliya Levchenko turned to the high jump. In 2014, at only 17 years old, she cleared a bar which stood at 1.89 m and won the Youth Olympic Games. Three years later, she became the world vice-champion in London. This achievement earned her the title of Ukraine’s Best Female Athlete in 2017. The Richard Mille partner (since 2018), whose personal bests stand at 2.00 m (indoors) and 2.02 m (outdoors), who reached the No. 2 world ranking in 2017 and was a finalist at the Tokyo Olympic Games, is always looking upwards.

“The watch is really nice and super light.
It is so light that it makes me want to move.
I’m a high jumper, so feeling light for me is very significant.
I like details, when small pieces create something bigger.
The color is really cool because it makes me smile.
It’s important because sometimes I want to pick up my mood. Watches give me a chance to be more fashionable.
It gives me a more positive mood. It seems like high jumpers don’t need watches or to keep time. But I need it.
I feel very prepared when I know the time.
I feel myself better. It’s about my routine in sport.
For me, wearing a watch, means being in the moment.
I can “catch my mind” and my soul.”

The long-awaited moment has arrived: time to take on a new challenge. Some athletes prepare their entire lives for one fleeting moment that may change the course of their lives.
Combining great ergonomics and feather-lightness, performance and shock resistance, extreme skeletonisation and architectural aesthetics, the RM 07-04 Automatic Sport collection is united with these high-level sportswomen in their quest for perfection, body and soul.

The final steps towards a competition’s venue involve an inextricable mix of relief and tension. They bring to an end months and months, sometimes years of preparation. Adrenaline takes over, and it’s time for action. To truly stand out, precision, know-how and rigour must be combined with the ability to surpass oneself at the critical moment. These skills, specific to the greatest of champions, are values top-level sport shares with the world of fine watchmaking at Richard Mille.

“A lot of great athletes trust us, and we are really honoured,” says Amanda Mille. “Some, like Nafi Thiam, Ester Ledecká and Yuliya Levchenko, needed a lighter piece, whereas Nelly Korda, Aurora Straus and Margot Laffite were looking for a more versatile watch. With the RM 07-04 Automatic Sport, we are nearing the ideal watch for extreme sports.”

Lightweight, at just 36 grams, including the Velcro® strap, the timepieces that make up the RM 07-04 Automatic Sport collection give these athletes an opportunity to express themselves freely in their respective disciplines. These watches demonstrate their ability to withstand the shocks and g-force inherent to both golf and motor racing, and to hold up against the heat of athletics competitions as well as the cold of winter events.

On the big day, an RM 07-04 Automatic Sport must do nothing to break its wearer’s peak of concentration, but rather allow each sportswoman to experience the full range of her sensations and achieve a feeling of fulfilment conducive to performance. drawing on these emotions, passionate athletes such as Aurora Straus, the first professional female racing driver in North America, or Margot Laffite, the motorsport journalist and driver who has already won the Andros Trophy (the world’s largest motorsport competition on ice) hope to recreate them in competition.

According to racing driver Aurora Straus, winning a motorsport competition is a spur-of-the-moment thing; it’s a fundamentally psychological sport. “The difference in speed is minimal,” she says. “We seize the advantage when we convince ourselves on a more intrinsic level that we can win.” Margot Laffite confirms Aurora’s words: “You have to be organised and meticulous in your preparation. Like the gears of a watch, it is the combination of many aspects during the competition that “mesh” to create potential success.”

The three years of tireless development required to create the RM 07-04 Automatic Sport are a credit to the combined work of the creative and technical teams. “We did not confine ourselves to a simply minimalist design. Instead, we chose a skeletonised movement with visible complexity,” explains Cécile Guenat, Director of Creation and Development. The challenge was to develop an ultra-compact and resistant in-house automatic movement while giving it a new aesthetic suitable for all of life’s moments, on and off the course, field, court or pitch. “We had to resolve a threefold technical challenge: extreme skeletonisation, integration of the case with the movement and inclusion of an inverted function selector,” adds Salvador Arbona, Technical Director for Movements.

The CRMA8 calibre is an in-house automatic movement with hours, minutes and function selector. Oscillating at a frequency of 4 Hz (28,800 vibrations per hour), it is the most compact of the calibres developed by Richard Mille. The function selector, a complication synonymous with the brand, eliminates all pressure on the winding stem. Linked to a push-piece at 4 o’clock, the selector allows the wearer to choose among the neutral (N), winding (W) or time setting (H) positions with a simple press. A hand situated at 5 o’clock displays the active function on the grade 5 titanium bridge. Its inverted position in relation to other such selectors at Richard Mille provides a better view of the movement’s kinematics in action and further highlights the brand’s ingenuity.

The racing driver and presenter on several car shows, Margot Laffite is passionate about speed and competition. The daughter of the Formula One champion, Jacques Laffite, embarked on a career as a racing driver in the early 2000s. She takes part in the FIA GT3 European Championship, and winning the women’s race of the Andros Trophy (the world’s biggest ice-racing championship) in 2005. Richard Mille partner since 2017, she has been a sponsor of Association Du Sport et Plus since 2013, the purpose of which is to improve the daily lives of children in hospital.

“In racing, you have designs that are really colorful.
It’s a way to show yourself, the one you see on the track.
That is what I like about this watch. It’s really light to wear.
That’s impressive. I like the strap, it changes the aspect on the skin.
I love watches, it’s something I’ve always loved. And it was my first jewel.
Being a partner for me is like being part of a family. The word family always comes out.
When you talk about the relation with the brand, with Richard Mille and the family, it’s really about having something in common, your way of life, your passion.”

The RM 07-04 Automatic Sport is equipped with gears that have involute profiles. This eliminates any discrepancies between the wheel centres, especially those caused by temperature shifts. These gears also ensure excellent torque transmission and, as a result, significantly improved chronometric characteristics. The watch is further fitted with a fast-rotating barrel that reduces the phenomenon of internal mainspring adhesion and thus improves performance. The optimised delta curve of the coiled leaf-spring contained in the barrel is sufficient to increase the precision of the calibre by ensuring a constant delivery of power over close to 50 hours of operation, using energy produced by a platinum and tungsten rotor.

“‘In such a compact watch, which must resist shocks and wear, providing this level of technicity is an impressive feat,” emphasises Salvador Arbona. The other major challenge of this calibre lies in its ultra-skeletonisation. Each part of the movement has been designed in perfect visual harmony with the rest. To ensure the rigidity of the whole, the plate and bridges are made of grade 5 titanium, completed by a black PVD treatment. The finishing of the movement, with its hand-polished angles, milling and bead-blasted findings, also bears witness to a very rigorous approach. The quality and technicity of the hand finishing, heightened by the graphic design of the case further enhance the elegance of a mechanism that brooks no compromise.

The movement, which is extensively worked without detracting from its compactness, accentuates the quality of the finishing. To put it to the test of shocks and use, this technical watch then underwent a battery of watchmaking tests, from the “Charpy test” to the “trap door”, by way of drastic ageing tests. The RM 07-04 Automatic Sport thus demonstrated its ability to withstand accelerations of over 5,000 g’s.

One of the parts that required the greatest attention was the flange, which was worked as if it belonged to the movement. At first glance, the flange and the movement appear to be one and the same, balancing the architecture of the whole, which includes titanium crosspieces, notably integrating the openwork window of the function selector. The boldness of this construction creates a remarkable play of visual dynamics.

The signature of this model is stamped on a grade 5 titanium insert in the caseband. The RM 07-04 Automatic Sport is thus the most “airy” of the Richard Mille’s ladies’ models, an achievement made possible by the use of materials such as Quartz TPT® and Carbon TPT® for the case. A collection whose effective ergonomics are designed for the wrists of sportswomen and to suggest sporting achievement.

For Florida-based golfer Nelly Korda, the only way to master her craft is to be determined to win. “Every week I tee off with the will to be in the race, a desire to win and make a difference.”

At the age of 13, the American Aurora Straus suddenly developed a passion for motorsports when she drove with her father for the first time. From then on, a few years later she succeeded in becoming the only professional female sportscar racer in North America. She competed in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge and the Pirelli World Challenge, among other races. Also this musician at heart studies at the prestigious Harvard University. Straus, a Richard Mille partner since 2018, also started her own charity. “Girls With Drive” works to promote male-dominated career paths among girls.

“It’s super freeing to have that type of technology so light on your wrist and have it not hindered you in any way, particularly as an athlete. Richard Mille does an incredible job in how I’ve been “matched” with watches that are such an accurate representation of my development.
If I had to use two words to describe Richard Mille, it would be unbreakable and family.
I love that this watch is unbreakable. And in that sense, an extension of the way that I think of myself in my car.
I trust my watch the way I trust my body and the way I trust my car. Richard Mille is also a family, people who have the same values as me of wanting to disrupt the industry and to build something unbreakable.”

Whether managing the heady rush of victory or taming defeat, the aftermath of a competition is usually followed by well-earned decompression.

Every individual, whether they are the world’s number one in their discipline or the underdog no one expected, has their own way of handling the days following a sporting achievement. Czech snowboarder and skier Ester Ledecká is convinced that rest and recuperation are important factors in her sport: “Wherever there is snow and mountains, that’s where I feel most like myself and have the most fun. That’s how I can decompress and recharge after the intensity of the downhill. Even though, in my career, I’ve lost more than I’ve won, the impression remains that I often win, when in reality I have good and bad days. I would say that the important thing is to always know how to bounce back. Winning is a kind of reward for all the hard work. That’s what top-level sport is all about.” Armed with her RM 07-04 Automatic Sport, Ester asserts her power on the mountains, and the two of them, partners at all times, work powerfully in symbiosis to meet high-pressure situations.

Our partners are personalities not lacking in panache, like the energising colours of the RM 07-04 Automatic Sport collection. The fundamental role assigned to colour in sport was one of the inspirations for the creation of these six new models. Athletes never choose their clothing by chance. Bright, warm colours encourage the hormone dopamine, which improves motivation, while pastel shades contribute to relaxation by promoting secretion of oxytocin, known as the happiness hormone.

With this in mind, Cécile Guenat and her team have chosen timeless tones for the six models. The colours of each case interact perfectly with those of the bracelets, the tips of the hands, or the flange, according to a palette of shades to which Richard Mille alone knows the secret.

Her grandfather was a world champion in ice hockey and her mother a figure skater – and is the daughter of a world-renowned singer and songwriter, made sports history in 2018. During the Winter Olympic Games, she became the first athlete to compete in two disciplines requiring different equipment (skis and snowboard). The Czech athlete went on to win gold medals in Super-G (alpine skiing) and in parallel giant slalom (snowboard), and became the Olympic winner in this latter discipline for a second time in 2022. Ester Ledecká has been a Richard Mille partner since 2018, is a source of inspiration for many athletes around the world.

“This watch is very comfortable to wear!
I love that you can see through what’s going on inside.
It’s amazing to just watch all these little wheels running.
What I like about this watch is that when I wear it, it’s like a part of me.
And it’s also like someone’s holding my hand saying everything is going to be alright, for the whole day. It gives me a sense of a comfort. For me, it’s more something that brings me luck.
And in sports you need it a lot. When I have (the watch on), even underneath all the jackets and equipment,
I know it’s going to be a good race, I feel that it’s bringing me luck.”

The choice of Quartz TPT® was an obvious one for the production of this first ladies’ sports watch collection. A highly technical composite material exclusive to Richard Mille watchmaking, Quartz TPT® was developed eight years ago in association with the brand’s partner, North Thin Ply Technology (NTPTTM), a leader in advanced composite materials. With its exceptional properties, Quartz TPT® has enabled the brand to make major advances in terms of inalterability and shock resistance.

The machining of Quartz TPT® is made from a mixture of quartz fibres, the most common crystalline form of silica, arranged in layers of parallel filaments and impregnated with a coloured matrix. A rotation of 45 degrees between each layer of fibres (45 microns in thickness), yields a complex weave. The stacked layers are heated to 120°C in an autoclave oven that combines temperature and pressure of 6 bars, followed by a hardening process spread over eight hours. Each component is then tested for density and strength. The resulting material is machined on a CNC machine in the Richard Mille workshops.

The striations visible on the surface are due to the 600 layers of shiny quartz fibres contrasting with the matt appearance of the resin. During machining, the different layers of the coloured Quartz TPT® components are revealed in a random manner, making each one unique.

Mastering the subtlety of pigments when working with Quartz TPT®, whose surface is characterised by its damascene effect, is a major challenge. Aurèle Vuilleumier, R&D Manager, explains that “our priority was to ensure the biocompatibility of the composite and its UV resistance.” The original white, which appeared in 2015 on the first-ever Quartz TPT® case of the RM 27-02 Tourbillon Rafael Nadal, was subsequently modified to increase the number of colours available for new models. The various colours specific tou each model were obtained through an extensive process of research and development.

All the intrinsic characteristics of Quartz TPT® – extreme lightness, non-allergenic properties, resistance to impact and UV rays and inalterability – must be perfectly preserved when the composite is tinted. “Pigment mixtures require a perfect mastery of colorimetry and there are no modelling tools to achieve the desired shades,” notes Aurèle Vuilleumier.

After numerous tests, NTPT™ made a proposal for each requested colour, i.e., delicate shades that are particularly sensitive to contamination and require the highest degree of purity in the manufacturing environment. Due to these constraints, they were developed in a cleanroom dedicated to the development and production of Quartz TPT® which NTPT™ and Richard Mille have at their disposal.

The case of the RM 07-04 appears in different shades, in black for the Carbon TPT® model, in creamy white, mauve, salmon, green and dark blue for the five Quartz TPT® models. The crown crafted in grade 5 titanium is satin-finished, micro-blasted and polished and the crown’s rubber is available in different colours as well as the pusher made of coloured Quartz TPT® bound in titanium.

The result of these efforts is a collection with a bold, ergonomic, graphic, technical and high-performance aesthetic, making each model a watch that is both pleasant to wear on a daily basis and well suited to intensive sport.

For several years, Nafi Thiam has been sailing through in heptathlon that does require exceptional versatility to shine in each of the seven races or competitions (100m hurdles, 200m, 800m, high jump, long jump, shot put and javelin). Queen of the heptathlon, at the age of 28, the Belgian athlete is quite simply a two-time Olympic, World Championship and European Championship gold medallist. She also holds the 3^rd best world performance of all time, with a total of 7,013 points. A Richard Mille partner since 2018, she uses her popularity, enthusiasm and dynamism to help UNICEF, for which she acts as an ambassador.

“The most important thing for me, when I’m doing my sport, is that the watch is not annoying; that it’s discrete.
It’s also an element of style because when you’re in competition, everybody’s dressed the same. So it’s one of the elements you can wear, a watch or jewelry, that you can show your personality.
Richard Mille is a brand for people who know about watches and also the search for performance and perfection, like efficiency.
I feel like it’s a good match with me, as an athlete, because that’s also what I’m looking for.
There are definitely similarities between my body and the watch.
I want them both to have great performance.”

Amanda Mille, Brand and Partnerships Director, and Cécile Guenat, Creative and Development Director each speak about the origins of the collection.

Can you tell us about the genesis of this collection?
Amanda MilleThere was a real desire to address the desires of our partners, who were already very satisfied with the models they were wearing but wanted an even more technical piece to support them in their sporting activities. The idea had been maturing for a while, given that creating a movement with very sporty codes for such a small watch took a great deal of time.

Cécile Guenat We wanted to develop a sporty women’s model that could be worn both for sport and in everyday life. This is one of the essential characteristics common to all Richard Mille sports watches. We started with a blank sheet of paper to design a women’s sports watch that incorporates the Richard Mille codes, combining reliability, comfort and lightness.

More than two decades after the brand was born, did you really find it essential to create a sporty women’s watch?
Amanda Mille Yes, it was an obvious choice. We genuinely listen to our customers and partners: taking our time to create this movement allowed us to ask the right questions. Our partners practice very different disciplines that require watches with specific characteristics, but in the end, we managed to synthesise all their requests into a single collection.

This is a great technical feat! The RM 07-04 Automatic Sport is slim. It reminds me of the RM 67-02, a watch developed earlier for our top sportsmen. We wanted a model with the same aspirations but designed for a woman’s wrist. The idea was not to simply copy and paste, but to go further.

Cécile Guenat We allowed ourselves total freedom by favouring the technical aspect thanks to a beautiful, skeletonised movement and a singular, eye-catching architecture for the flange. Together, the whole guarantees the superior resistance that is emblematic of the brand in the context of sports practice.

Was the use of colour another obvious choice for this sporty collection?
Cécile Guenat Yes, because style is inseparable from women’s sport and colour is very present in sportswear. Women’s sport is a very fashionable universe, just as colour is used in sportswear or streetwear. Three years ago, while looking at our inspiration notebooks, we identified colours consistent with the overall aesthetic we were looking for in this collection. Beyond the sporty timepiece, which it is, we imagined this watch for a broader lifestyle context.

Amanda Mille As with our other collections, it was logical to develop a number of colours, but it was a significant challenge because many of the RM 07-04 colours required a long development time.

How does this new collection fit into the world of Richard Mille women’s watches?
Amanda Mille For athletes such as Diana Luna (Richard Mille’s first female sports partner) and Jessica von Bredow-Werndl, we had already developed the RM 07-01 in Carbon TPT®, an elegant and technical timepiece made from a material that is both light and shock-resistant. The women’s collections have also benefited from innovations including the creation of new complications such as the introduction of a flying tourbillon, or the first in-house automatic tourbillon movement (RM 71-01 Talisman). This new collection underscores a lovely continuity in the realm of Richard Mille’s women’s watches, one notably due to the arrival of Cécile Guenat, who has opened up the brand to a more feminine look.

Cécile GuenatOffering a women’s skeletonised sports watch was a gamble no one had dared to take before. This collection is a demonstration of aesthetics as much as it is of technicity.

How did the six sportswomen react when they discovered this collection?
Amanda Mille They were all surprised because they didn’t expect us to take it so far in terms of development. There was a lot of emotion when they saw the piece, because I think they immediat ely felt that we had reached a milestone in terms of lightness. And it’s a goal we achieved without ever forgetting what is important to us: technicity and the constant quest for reliability.

CALIBRE
The CRMA8 calibre is the most compact ever developed by Richard Mille. Its highly sophisticated geometry and extreme skeletonisation make it an aesthetically pleasing calibre for all moments of life. The watches in which it resides can absorb shocks of up to 5,000 g’s.

CARBON TPT® AND QUARTZ TPT® CASE
These materials consist of many layers of parallel filaments obtained by separating silica or carbon fibres. These layers, which have a maximum thickness of 45 microns, are impregnated with matrix and then woven by changing the orientation of the fibres by 45° between each stacked layer, before being heated to 120°C at a pressure of 6 bars.

FLANGE
The flange, which is worked to look like part of the movement, balances the architecture of the whole and plays an important role in the 3D effect of the watch.
It highlights volume and depth while extending the lines of the calibre.

GRADE 5 TITANIUM BASEPLATE AND BRIDGES
Grade 5 titanium is a biocompatible alloy offering very high corrosion resistance and remarkable stiffness, guaranteeing perfect operation of the gear train. The use of titanium combined with a black PVD treatment confers great rigidity on the assembly and ensures rigorous flatness of the surfaces.

FUNCTION SELECTOR
A push-piece located at 4 o’clock allows the user to select the neutral (N), winding (W) or time setting (H) position with a single press. A hand at 5 o’clock displays the function selected. For this model, the mounting of the selector has been reversed in order to highlight the mechanism.

WEIGHT
The RM 07-04 weighs just 36 grams, including its Velcro® strap. Combining solidity and resistance, it is the lightest piece in the Richard Mille ladies’ collection.

FINISHING
Movement

• Hand-polished anglage
  
• Microblasted milled section
  
• Microblasted sinks
  
• Black DLC treatment for the baseplate and bridges

Steel parts

• Satin-finished surfaces
  
• Hand-polished anglage
  
• Hand-polished bevelling
  
• Hand-polished locking section

Profil-turning

• Lapped and polished ends
  
• Burnished pivots
  
• Post faces polished

Wheels

• Concave chamfering with a diamond tool
  
• Diamond-polished sinks
  
• Circular-finished faces
  
• Rhodium plating (before cutting the teeth)
  
• Minimal corrections applied to the wheels in order to preserve geometry and performance

Ultra-light but highly resistant, ergonomically optimised but ultra-technical, Richard Mille watches are a distillate of innovation at the service of extreme sports.

Form follows function. This precept, emphasised by proponents of the Bauhaus, a school of architecture and applied arts founded in Weimar in 1919 and governed by functionalist ideas, has served as the golden rule for Richard Mille, applied without concession to the brand’s precision watchmaking instruments. For Richard Mille, ‘function’ is a concept that brooks no discussion. It governs a horological universe in which watches are designed to cope with the most extreme conditions. These timepieces are the fruit of research conducted in the most innovative sectors, such as Formula 1 or aerospace, raising their performance to levels comparable to those of elite sportsmen and women thanks to their unfailing resistance and watchmaking prowess.

RM 27-04
From the earliest beginnings of the brand, in 2001, the quest for absolutes manifested itself through intense experimental research into materials, alloys and composites whose extreme lightness is matched only by their resistance. There is simply no point in equipping an outstanding sportsman like Rafael Nadal with a watch that is not a second skin. For the case of the manual wind RM 27-04 Tourbillon Rafael Nadal, Richard Mille engineers developed TitaCarb®. This high-performance polymer, reinforced by the injection of carbon fibres, is one of the world’s most resistant composites, with a breaking point approaching that of steel and an extremely low density.

The RM 27-04 thus weighs barely 30 grams, including its strap. This lightness, combined with the revolutionary concept of suspending the movement from a screen woven from a single steel cable held in place by tensioners, makes this model capable of withstanding accelerations of more than 12,000 g’s, a resistance record equivalent to the acceleration of a Formula 1 piston!

RM 67-02
Incredible lightness is a characteristic shared with the RM 67-02 Automatic Extra Flat designed to support skiers, athletes and tennis players during competition. On the wrist, it weighs just 32 grams, thanks to its case made of Carbon TPT® and Quartz TPT®, composite materials exclusive to Richard Mille that are exceptionally shock resistant. A skeletonised baseplate in grade 5 titanium and a rotor also made of Carbon TPT® are part of this same slimming regime, as is the one-piece elastic strap, the lightest created by the brand. In addition to shedding weight, the model’s ergonomics are carefully calculated to ensure total symbiosis between the sportsman and his watch. This is reflected on the RM 67-02 by the slimness of the watch, whose total height is less than 8 millimetres.

RM 61-01
On the RM 61-01 Yohan Blake, the very shape of the watch is stretched between 2 and 5 o’clock to prevent the crown from rubbing against the sprinter’s wrist. Within its black ceramic and Carbon TPT® case, this model houses the RMUL2 skeleton calibre, which weighs barely more than 4 grams despite a double barrel ensuring a power reserve of 55 hours, as well as incredible resistance (5,000 g’s).

RM 38-02
The same asymmetrical case is found in the RM 38-02 Bubba Watson manual wind tourbillon, the third tourbillon watch in the collection to bear the name of the famous golfer. For the occasion, the model’s skeleton calibre with grade 5 titanium bridges is clothed in pink-tinted Quartz TPT®, the sportsman’s favourite colour, and Carbon TPT®. As light as it is technical, the RM 38-02 has a variable inertia balance, a guarantee of reliability in the event of shocks, a dynamometric crown, a safety device that prevents any forced winding, and above all a tourbillon regulation, a watchmaking precision device renowned for its fragility, but which on this watch is resistant to shocks up to 10,000 g’s.

RM 53-01
For the RM 53-01 Tourbillon Pablo Mac Donough, Richard Mille’s technical teams developed a device that suspends the tourbillon calibre in its Carbon TPT® case for the polo player. Aware that a standard crystal would not offer sufficient resistance to counter the percussive force of a mallet, the brand’s engineers drew inspiration from the automobile industry to design a patented laminate crystal, composed of two sapphire crystal sheets separated by polyvinyl film.

RM 36-01
In the case of the manual wind RM 36-01 Tourbillon Sébastien Loeb, the watch itself has the capacity to measure the forces experienced by the famous rally driver thanks to its g sensor. Bringing together more than 50 components, this device can be set with a twist of the bezel to measure acceleration, braking or cornering, with a dedicated hand displaying the g-force accumulated during the various phases of driving, up to 6 g – that is to say six times body weight. A pusher at the centre of the sapphire crystal will reset the device to zero. Simplicity of use, efficiency of information and ease of reading make this watch a real “on-board instrument” – and another technological innovation that has revolutionised mechanical watchmaking, a constant at Richard Mille.