Richard Mille Creates ‘Most Extreme Watch Ever’ in Honor of McLaren Supercar
A six-figure timepiece for a seven-figure hypercar.
As a tribute to the fastest McLaren road car that is the 1,070-horsepower, 250-mph Speedtail, Richard Mille has created its “most extreme” watch ever.
Richard Mille’s casing department, led by Technical Director Julien Boillat, spent an unprecedented 2,800 hours over 18 months on just the water droplet-like shell and air outlet-like pushers—two details that hark to the hyper-GT. Another 18 months went into the the crystal, which is shaped with a triple contour to accommodate the decreasing taper and thickness of the bezel.
“The watch has one of the highest levels of finishing ever executed at Richard Mille. There has also been a lot of development with our anglers and polishers,” Boillat said in a statement. “The attention to detail is extreme, with mirror polished, plain and satinized effects in different areas and the combined use of titanium and Carbon TPT. The case itself is made from 69 individual parts.”
A new CRMT4 movement architecture featuring the mechanism’s first power reserve display, oversize date and function selector complications demanded 8,600 hours of development. The platinum and red gold winding rotor and barrel-setting are inspired by the Speedtail’s hood and roofline, while the downward curve that the mechanism follows from 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock recalls the brushed metal divider between the car’s cockpit and shell.
The same McLaren orange featured in the liveries of Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris’ MCL35 Formula One cars appears in a stripe that begins at the 6 o’clock position and continues onto the black rubber strap—an accent made possible by an over-molding technology dubbed Vulculor.
Like the car, the RM 40-01 Automatic Tourbillon McLaren Speedtail is limited to just 106 units. No word on price, but we’re talking about a Richard Mille, so expect something in the six-figure range.
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