"Sign of the horns" paired with a flying tourbillon.
The RM 66 Flying Tourbillon by Richard Mille isn't dedicated to any one particular band or artist. Yet it has plenty of iconic details that instantly tell you it's got roots in rock music. Let's start with the centerpiece — the red-gold hand gesture in the middle of the dial.
According to one version, it was introduced to rock music by the Black Sabbath band-member Ronnie James Dio, who claims his Italian grandmother used the sign of the horns with a raised index and pinky finger to ward off the evil eye.
The hand on the watch dial with meticulously crafted finger-bone digits was created by the engraver Olivier Vaucher for Richard Mille. The Genevan master's portfolio includes masks for Vacheron Constantin, fairies for Van Cleef & Arpels, peacocks for Corum and knights for Roger Dubuis.
This isn't his first time working with Richard Mille either. He's taken an unconventional approach to the RM 66 Flying Tourbillon: not only is the hand visible "holding up" the flying tourbillon at 12 o'clock on the dial side, it can also be viewed on the caseback side.
The gesture on the dial isn't the only detail borrowed from the traditional rock kit. The hour markers on miniature pillars are shaped like guitar picks. As a finishing touch, gold inserts on the caseband resemble the studs you'd see on a rocker's leather jacket.
Richard Mille RM 66 Flying Tourbillon
The spider-shaped winding crown has an essential skull in the center. Its legs clutch a ruby and its circular black rubber gasket. The winding crown presented a challenge: over 200 hours went into creating and finishing this one component.
The shape presented a problem which even made fixing the crown difficult for the watchmaker, along with the choice of titanium as a material, which is much harder to polish than rendering a similar finish on gold or steel.
Richard Mille claims it took a total of 1500 hours of research and development plus nine months of work to create the case. The case in titanium and Carbon TPT houses the manually wound RM66 movement with a 72-hour power reserve. Availability of the RM 66 Flying Tourbillon is limited to 50 pieces.