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Whatever floats your boat! A new tack from Richard Mille: RM014 Perini Navi
Perhaps my favourite of this season?s new releases from Richard Mille is the RM014. Instead of taking his design and technological cues from auto racing (and especially Formula 1), Richard Mille has set sail for the world of competitive yacht racing. Richard Mille, showing that the racing machine on your wrist is not confined to just terra firma, brings us the RM014 which is technically identical to the RM002-v2, but takes all the design cues from the world of competitive yacht racing. Coupled with Richard Mille's co-sponsorship of the Perrini Navi Cup, the RM014 means that Richard Mille has embarked on a new tack! (Details of the Perrini Navi Cup can be found here: http://www.perininavicup.it/ - however the Italians have not updated their website since 2004!).
Visitors to the Audemars Piguet and Girard-Perregaux forums will be all too aware of the respective brands involvement in the world of competitive yachting. At the very top end of this (the Formula 1 of the yachting world) is the Americas Cup. (http://www.americascup.com/en/ ) The oldest racing trophy in the world and now competed for by teams from all over the world (whereas once it was a private duel between the US and England). Racing yacht design is as involved and complex as racing car design. The same fluid dynamics equations that describe fluid motion over an F1 car, also apply to the same surface problem for a yacht in water. There is also the same need for new materials, rigidity in construction, and cutting edge design work. Similarly, the same search for new material use, and research on form and function for every element on the racing yacht is just as complex as in auto racing. Even more telling is the fact that most Americas Cup yacht team employ full time a set of designers and engineers who work perpetually on the yacht to fine tune it in both practice and even competition. The budget of an Americas Cup yacht team makes the budget of a Formula 1 racing team look almost reasonable.
What impresses me most about the RM014 is the way Richard Mille has used design elements from a yacht to create a completely new look and feel to the RM tourbillon. While every bit the embodiment of a modern day racing yacht, I think the RM014 resembles the grace and design of the by-gone era J-Class yachts (http://www.jclassyachts.com/newindexb.html ). Just look at the design cues on the watch that resemble elements of the J-Class. How the grooves of the surface of the casing resemble the decking, the lines of the yacht:
So with these images in our minds, it is my pleasure to present the Richard Mille RM014, a true racing (yacht) machine on your wrist
I also love the details. Note how the winding crown for the watch looks like a winding winch for a racing yacht:
how the cog wheels look like ?blocks?
The design of the RM014 (to my mind), perhaps more than any other watch associated with racing yachts, incorporates and uses features of the object of design. Richard Mille has changed the screws, cogs, and plates to represent features found on racing yachts then (J-class) and now (Americas Cup racing yachts). Case in platinum, base plate of carbon fibre, arms and cogs in high grade titanium. Ill post the technical specs in the coming days, but for now, enjoy!
Andrew H
