Richard Mille: One of a kind

Richard Mille has raised the bar in watchmaking with materials and mechanisms that beggar belief

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(Image credit: Youenn.b)

Fifteen years ago, a younger and more audacious Richard Mille was at Baselworld, the annual watch fair in Switzerland on a marketing mission with a difference. Trying to engender interest in the expensive timepiece he’d just created, the RM 001 Tourbillon, Mille threw 
the new watch against walls, bounced it off the ground and literally chucked it around as if were
a rubber toy. Tourbillons – though named after the French word for whirlwind – are delicate pieces of micro-engineering that counter the effects of gravity on the escapement; by definition of their intricate workings, they should be handled with care, not flung about like a glow stick at a festival.

Witnessing this spectacle, industry executives and experts may well have wondered what sort of madman had burst into their midst – a watchmaker whose approach was so left-field and self-assured that he hadn’t even secured an exhibition stand at the show. Truth be told, Mille had invested everything in his new company: he needed the attention and, quite frankly, he had nothing to lose. Plus, he was safe in the knowledge that his tourbillons are a bionic mix of high-tech materials used in airplanes, motorsport and even satellites; as such, they are resistant to extreme shock and high impact.

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