Richard Mille: A Metronome of Emotions

The new RM72-01 Lifestyle In-House Chronograph by Richard Mille has been described as a "metronome of emotions", and the watchmaking brand insists that time can be controlled and ordered according to aspirations.

Richard Mille launched the W I T H I N project to highlight the connection between watchmaking and art, inviting the composer Thomas Roussel and choreographer Benjamin Millepied to share their feelings about the motion of time. Former director of dance at the Paris Opera ballet company Benjamin Millepied, who was also the choreographer for the film Black Swan, chose to shoot the W I T H I N project in the middle of the desert in California's Joshua Tree National Park, the perfect setting for this modern dance bringing together watchmaking and art.

Two dancers move to the music composed by Roussel, conveying the idea set in motion by the choreographer. The unique composition was recorded by 50 musicians from the London Symphony Orchestra. It was also recorded in an intimate and time-honored setting — the Church of St. Luke in London — beneath the famous stained glass windows by William Morris.

The video is more than just a philosophical sketch of the passage of time, traced by the harmonious movements of the dancers. It features another novelty — the RM 72-01 — Richard Mille's in-house developed automatic caliber, and the brand's first in-house chronograph featuring a patented design.

After 30 months of work, the brand's engineers managed to replace the traditional flyback chronograph with a new patented module, which splits the generated torque across the chronograph’s various counters, disengaging the display and the connection to the minutes and hours from the chronograph’s seconds wheel.

Drawing power directly from the barrel to supply the chronograph’s counters, the enhanced energy is transmitted to the chronograph train by two oscillating pinions mounted on rockers.

The rockers which control the start, stop, flyback and reset functions are activated by a 6-column wheel. By splitting the torque between the counters, the new system has also extended the power reserve to 50 hours. Thankfully the application of this technical know-how did not over-inflate the movement, which is  still only 6.05 mm thick.

The RM 72-01 also uses a free-sprung balance wheel with variable inertia, and has a convenient indicator function which shows the selected function controlled by the winding crown (winding, neutral, and time and date hand setting positions).

The 38.4 x 47.3 mm barrel-shaped case comes in four editions: titanium, red gold, black ceramic and white ceramic. The titanium and gold watches are the stars of the clip directed by Benjamin Millepied.