Paris, France
“Like Ferrari, which continuously seeks to gain another few thousandths of a second while racing, we fought to shave off the last hundredths of a millimeter to achieve the flattest possible watch. But those last dozen or so micrometers were hard won in a long and arduous process,” says Yves Mathys, Head of Production for Richard Mille.
Richard Mille’s RM UP-01 Ferrari, made in collaboration with Ferrari, sets a new record as the world’s thinnest watch measuring just 1.75mm, constituting a triumph of technical prowess and pushing the technical limits by distributing its components across a large surface area rather than stacking them, as in a traditional watch.
Micro-thin watchmaking is challenging because the thinner you make the components and baseplate, the less robust the watch becomes.
Richard Mille solved this by making the baseplate and bridges out of grade 5 titanium, a particularly rigid alloy that includes aluminum and vanadium and is harder, stronger, and 40% lighter than steel.
It was extensively tested to make sure the watch was strong enough to withstand accelerations of over 5,000 G’s.
“In terms of the casing, watchmaking standards stipulate a minimum section thickness of 0.35 mm in certain places. However, we are sometimes at 0.18 mm of material here,” says Julien Boillat, Richard Mille’s technical director of cases and exteriors.
“Extensive laboratory testing was necessary to ensure the components offered the needed strength despite this reduction in a material at strategic points such as the case band and case back.”
The case, like most other Richard Mille watches, is tonneau, but it’s an east-west tonneau, rotated so that the long end, which is 51mm is positioned lengthwise on the wrist, and the short end, which is 39mm, rests between the knuckles.
RM UP-01 by Richard Mille and Ferrari costs nearly $1,888,000 and it comes in a limited edition of 150 pieces.
Project: RM UP-01 Ferrari
Designers: Richard Mille France SAS and Ferrari S.p.A.
Manufacturer: Richard Mille France SAS
