The RM019-02 Fleur was the main watch and complication offered by Richard Mille at SIHH2015. Without doubt, although the case design is definitively Richard Mille and belongs in the twenty-first century, the mechanism and the representation of the complication has more of a connection to the eighteenth century. At a time when the lines between natural sciences, or physics (from the Greek: physis or nature), and horology were blurred and labelled under the same heading as science. Science was seen as natural philosophy: or more appropriately a field of study concerned with the “workings of nature”. Under such guise, the horologists of the eighteenth century looked to produce realized forms to the more esoteric work of the scientists of the day, who were studying the application of mathematical analysis to problems of motion known as rational mechanics or classical mechanics.
Along with the subjection of nature to the mathematical rules of physicists, philosophers such as Descartes began to argue that the bodies of animals are nothing more than complex machines: that the bones, muscles and organs could be replaced with cogs, pistons and cams. It was under such scientific endeavours that a mechanism became the standard to which Nature and the organism was compared. In particular, in France, and later Switzerland, the likes of Jacques de Vaucanson, a French inventor created the Canard Digerateur. Known in English as the Digesting Duck, he built it to prove his belief that animals were little more than complex machines. The Canard Digerateur supposedly ate grains and defecated what was left later on. Of course it did neither of the functions, but it looked as if it did.
Making watches and automata in the eighteenth century were closely aligned: working with small mechanics and retrograde mechanisms. Automaton makers included the Frenchman Pierre Jaquet-Droz and his contemporary Henri Maillardet. Maillardet, a Swiss mechanic, created an automaton capable of drawing four pictures and writing three poems. However, most of the automata connected with watches tended to be rather two dimensional in shape and performance! It was usually a single action motion such as a man hammering a bell, an anvil, or (and please forgive the crudity of the statement) a member of the fairer sex. However, the automata were derived from the mechanism and did not incorporate the mechanism itself. Think of it this way: the arm, leg, or other appendage movement was just a retrograde hand moving back and forth! This really was sex becoming mechanical! Perhaps not what the natural philosophers had in mind.
Richard’s RM019-02 moves beyond the usual automata watch found previously by including not only the automata mechanism within the watch, but combining it with the escapement as part of the automata. I am happy to stand corrected, but I cannot think of another watch, whether in this century or in any of the previous, that has accomplished this within the same mechanism. It is delightful in the very sense of whimsy. Every five minutes the 18 karat gold petals open to reveal the flying tourbillon. Press the button on the left of the case, the flower petals open out, and the flying tourbillon can be seen and the rises up from the base of the magnolia flower. The automaton is powered independently from the watch by an auxiliary gear train linked to a second barrel dedicated exclusively to the escapement. Choosing a magnolia was appropriate on a couple of fronts: first it was a flower discovered by and named after a Frenchman during the Age of Enlightenment (seventeenth/eighteenth century): Pierre Magnol. Second, the mechanism is not only a delight to see, but in true keeping with the eighteenth century automata, what actually transpires in nature. The magnolia flower actually opens the petals and elevates the stamen upwards to encourage pollination. The jewel at the top of the tourbillon cage has been modeled to resemble the stamen of the flower.
To see the mechanism in action, watch the video here: youtu.be
As ever with Richard the RM019-02 is a limited edition; only 30 watches to be available worldwide. Although admittedly “not my thing”, it is an impressive piece: a great deal of thought, imagination, passion, and history has been put into designing and making a watch such as this. It is, as Richard (who lives in an eighteenth century chateau), something that has its origins in the modern era, but which draws inspiration from the centuries past. The petals for the flower are enameled white gold; the leaves are likewise, and the case and watch face are covered in approximately 200 diamonds.