Avant-garde in materials. Richard Mille RM 21-01

Unconventional material for an unconventional product.

On April 25, Rafael Nadal beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Barcelona Open final to win the title for the 12th time in his career. The decorated Spaniard stepped into the court with a Richard Mille timepiece on his wrist. This was not a surprise to anyone familiar with the Swiss watchmaker wont to test its most expensive models on tennis courts, race courses or running tracks.

Another feature of the luxury brand is the unending experimentation with new materials and the application of alloys designed to endure extreme conditions. Or beat records. Carbon TPT® from North Thin Ply Technology, which Richard Mille has used to produce cases since October 2013, when RM 011, the first model in a new case, was released, is one such material.

As was recently announced, Swiss boat builder SP80 will use the same Carbon TPT® to manufacture a yacht capable of reaching a speed of 150 km/h to break the world sailing speed record. Richard Mille’s new model will follow the tradition of this relatively young (as Swiss watchmakers go) brand. The RM 21-01 Manual Winding Tourbillon Aerodyne watches deploy Haynes 214, an alloy which only recently found its way into watchmaking.

It is manufactured by Haynes International, a US company developing alloys since 1912. The principle feature of this heatproof nickel-chromium-aluminum-iron alloy is high-temperature oxidation resistance - it can be treated at a temperature of 955 °C and above. Richard Mille employed this alloy for RM21-01’s movement baseplate, a blue honeycomb structure clearly visible through the dial.

The company’s favorite, Carbon TPT® exoskeleton made up of 600 layers of parallel filaments obtained by separating out carbon fibers, is still there: the bezel and case back are made of it, as are the pillars replacing the conventional casing ring that are held in place by titanium screws. The second material used in the case is red gold. This fusion of gold and ultra-advanced materials is nothing new for Richard Mille. For instance, RM11 Felipe Massa utilized titanium mixed in with pink gold.

The 50-piece RM 21-01 Tourbillon Aerodyne limited edition exhibits many other distinct features of a Richard Mille watch. Similar to RM 002 released back in 2001, RM 21-01 has a function selector located at the center of the crown to choose between winding and hand-setting. The movement is fitted with a free sprung balance with a variable inertia, whose four small adjustable screws allow for a more accurate calibration.

Torque indicator located on the dial supplies information about the mainspring’s tension - below 5.3 N.mm, the spring is considered too slack, while above 6.5 N.mm means excess tension. The desire to simplify the movement’s setting and maintenance resulted in the manually wound RM 21-01 having a separate time-setting module, which can be removed without affecting the entire movement.