Skip to main content
search

The renowned Swiss luxury watch brand, Richard Mille, has revealed the fourth creation in its collaboration series with McLaren, the elite British luxury supercar brand. The RM 65-01 McLaren Automatic Split-Seconds Chronograph W1 is an exquisite timepiece, taking inspiration from the new W1 McLaren supercar. The watch showcases the cutting-edge, high-performance features of the car, reflecting thoroughly the details of the esteemed automotive, plantable on one’s wrist. 

A Timepiece’s Engine

To replicate the powerful engine of the McLaren W1 supercar, Richard Mille inserted the RMAC4 – the brand’s most high-performing automatic chronograph movement – into the RM 65-01 timepiece. This movement boasts an impressively high speed of 5Hz or 36,000 vibrations per hour, ensuring precision and high performance. Instead of a usual casing ring, the movement is placed atop chassis mounting rubbers and features a ‘rapid winding’ system. This system allows for a quick full recharge, using a special push piece made from orange Quartz TPT®. And, following McLaren’s “performance everywhere” principle for the supercar, the RM 65-01 watch can indeed perform everywhere. It is suited for daily use, due to its robust 480-part movement ensuring durability and reliability, as well as the adjustable geometry winding rotor that adapts to the wearer’s lifestyle. The watch’s design is equally impressive, with the intricate details of the grey electroplasma treatment of the grade 5 titanium baseplate in full display through the crystal, along with the black PVD and grey electroplasma-treated grade 5 titanium bridges.

 

 

“This project perfectly illustrates Richard Mille’s philosophy of constantly pushing technical boundaries to create innovative watches that include the latest watchmaking developments with a functional, practical and high-performance approach,” commented Salvador Arbona, Technical Director for Movements at Richard Mille, on the development of the RM 65-01.

The Complexity of the RM 65-01

Out of all of Richard Mille’s ‘Racing Machine on the Wrist’ series, the RM 65-01 has the most technically complex bodywork. To successfully captivate the details of the McLaren W1 supercar onto the watch, Richard Mille’s creative team directed by Cécile Guenat, Creative and Development Director, was given exclusive early access to the first clay mock-ups of the car.

The watch displays a 43.84 x 49.94 x 16.19 mm Carbon TPT® case, inspired by the supercar’s lines. The indented double bezel on the timepiece, inspired by McLaren’s unique ‘aerocell’ architecture, presented a significant technical challenge during its development. The Carbon TPT® bezel is stacked atop a second bezel which is satin-finished and polished with grade 5 titanium. The intricate crenellations reveal the Carbon TPT® caseband and accentuate the watch’s contours. This complex design required nine months of development and experimentation with eight prototype designs. The upper bezel happens to be Richard Mille’s thinnest bezel to date, sized at 0.5 millimetres. The watch brand also developed a new skeletonised titanium dial, inspired by McLaren’s wheel rim patterns and subtly highlights details with McLaren’s signature colors, drawing out the feel of a supercar dashboard. This design not only enhances the watch’s aesthetic appeal but also improves its practicality in everyday use.

A True Driver’s Watch

Showcasing driving dynamics, the RM 65-01 is a true driver’s watch. It features a ‘function selector’ crown, operating as a transmission selector. This allows the wearer to choose W for “winding”, D for “Date” or H for “Hand-setting”. The crown is made with grade 5 titanium, and it includes a comfortable rubber coating in McLaren’s signature papaya orange as well as a tip with a papaya-coloured McLaren ‘Speedmark’. The watch’s chronograph push pieces and rapid winding button are inspired by the wheel rim details of the McLaren W1, adding to the sporty aesthetic.

The patterns adorning the papaya orange rubber strap are reminiscent of the aerodynamic angles found on the W1’s engine cover and ground-effect spoilers, and the sapphire crystal case back is clear, showcasing the intricate details of the movement.

 

“The W1 was designed to give the driver everything they need and nothing they don’t. It’s about a combination of epic power delivery, incredible performance and a high level of theatre both on the racetrack and the road. It is a daunting task to reflect these attributes in a watch, but Richard Mille has exceeded expectations with the RM 65-01 McLaren W1,” says Andrea Bermudez, Global Marketing Director, McLaren Automotive.

“Making this fourth watch in the series left us with the feeling that Richard Mille and McLaren are perfectly in-tune. We both work to the highest technical specifications with the most high-tech materials, ergonomics are as important to us as they are to them, and our design language really seems to have gelled. The interaction between our two teams and the partnership that it has created has, simply, become really strong,” says Julien Boillat, Casing Technical Director, Richard Mille.

There are only 500 units of this limited-edition watch, and prices start at CHF 320,000. For more information, visit this link.

Share this:
Close Menu