A tourbillon with a smiley face.
The main element on the dial of the new RM 88 Automatic Tourbillon Smiley is an emoticon we now replace half of our words with in text messages. The watchmaker has added other miniature sculptures to keep the yellow-gold smiley face company.
These symbols are also far from the troubles of the world: a flower, sun, cactus, pineapple, pink flamingo and a colorful rainbow. The watch's arrival is timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the famous Smiley.
The smiley face was born in 1972 thanks to a French journalist by the name of Franklin Loufrani. The symbol appeared as a response to the plethora of bad news stories on the pages of the France Soir newspaper where Loufrani worked.
The newspaper's publisher and director Pierre Lazareff eventually decided to break the negative cycle and make the newspaper more optimistic. Loufrani suggested printing positive news stories highlighted with a smiley face. This practice was later adopted by other European news outlets.
Richard Mille RM 88 Automatic Tourbillon Smiley
The RM 88 Automatic Tourbillon Smiley also uses a gold smiley face to decorate the red-gold winding crown. A barrel-shaped case in ATZ white ceramic frames the unique composition on the dial.
It's particularly interesting how the bright details are mounted at alternating angles beside components of the movement. The elements on the dial are mini masterpieces in and of themselves.
Take the cocktail glass as an example, which comprises four polished details. An umbrella, olive (1.7 mm in height) and grooved straw (0.4 mm in diameter) bring to mind the fun of dining out on vacation.
The glass itself weighs just 0.4 g, and another example, the flamingo made of red gold, is just 0.2 g. The watch is equipped with the new in-house caliber CRMT7. The bridges and baseplate of the automatic skeletonized tourbillon movement are made of titanium with a microblasted finishing.
The small seconds hand is integrated into the bigger picture: it glides over one cloud fixed over the tourbillon before disappearing behind another little cloud made of white gold.