richard mille rm 056 sapphire

Compatible Model: Richard Mille RM011 RM030 RM035 RM055, RM 056, RM 061, RM 057, RM 059. Related products. Complete Barrel with Arbor & Mainspring for ETA 2824-2, 2824, 2836, 2836-2 2846 from £16.99. Genuine Casio Bezel for GW-3000M GW 3000M 3000 BLACK ORANGE TEXT 10370708 from £14.99. swiss EURichard Mille RM056-02 Sapphire Crystal Tourbillon Watch $ 699.00 Add to cart SKU: RichardMille-117 Category: Rm 056 02 Tag: Men Description Reviews (0) Size: 43mm x 51mm x 17mmMovement: M8215 Automatic Movement 21600bphFunctions: Hours, Minutes and SecondsCase: White Ceramic Dial: Skeleton DialBezel: White CeramicCrystal: Scratch-proof sapphire crystal with AR coatingStrap: White Rubber Strap Clasp: Deployment Clasp Water resistance: 50 Meters To begin with, each component of the tripartite case - bezel, middle and back - is created from a sapphire unit, exemplarily machined and cut in mass, then a calibre with double platinum manual winding, the Richard Mille RM056, where the exemplary workmanships remind that the Richard Mille house has made itself an excellent reputation in the world of skeletization and construction. The Richard Mille Sapphire Marvels By Andrew Hildreth Richard Mille's crystal cased watch series was initially introduced at SIHH 2012 with the RM 056. An apparition of a watch as it stood in the case on the Richard Mille stand; it appeared to levitate in the display case. Richard's RM 056 was a ghost of a machine. Ist Flirten In Einer Beziehung Erlaubt. Richard Mille RM056 Felipe Massa Sapphire I have often thought of a watch case entirely made in sapphire crystal so that the inside mechanism could be explored. So I was pretty excited to see the new Richard Mille RM056 Felipe Massa Sapphire Tourbillon Split Seconds Competition Chronograph yes this is the full name.... The RM056 delivers a very sophisticated hand-wound tourbillon movement with hours, minutes, chronograph split seconds, power reserve and torque indicators. The entire case is cut and milled from solid blocks of sapphire, an engineering challenge considering the extreme hardness of this material. The result is a scratch-resistant case which unveils the complexity of the mechanism. All the bezel case parts have been treated with anti-glare coating for the best optical effect. The movement is perfected in all its parts, most of which are in titanium for a total movement weight of less than 10 grams. This exclusive watch is available in a Limited Edition of just 5 pieces - already sold - at the price of $1,65 million. Yes, you read correctly. Hopefully in the future we might see other watches, possibly more affordable, with sapphire crystal cases like this. Editor's Picks Jul 25, 2018 Richard Mille’s crystal cased watch series was initially introduced at SIHH 2012 with the RM 056. An apparition of a watch as it stood in the case on the Richard Mille stand; it appeared to levitate in the display case. Richard’s RM 056 was a ghost of a machine. Universally applauded and lauded, it was both an aesthetic and technical feat of horology. How, with a complex three-part structure, could the case be made from crystal, second only to diamond in hardness, and with so many intricate surfaces and shapes? Not least of which, the curvature of the case in three parts to match together perfectly. Seeing the crystal case manufacture and the case in abstract with no movement inside I was reminded of the way Yves Mathys R&D and Production Director at Richard Mille Watches SA described the first time he met Richard Mille. It was a warm summer’s day and Dominique Guernat was bringing Mille to meet Mathys and describe a new project. His quote from that first meeting aptly describes how different the Richard Mille watch design was “He showed me this watch [the RM001 prototype] and I thought– it’s an extraterrestrial!! We have an extraterrestrial ship for a watch!” But he could see how Mille was onto something different for the industry; something new and innovative. That vision was enhanced further with the case made from sapphire crystal. In the years since, Mathys has held the helm for developing and producing Richard Mille watches. He initially spoke to Mille about the idea of producing a complete top section for the case made of crystal about four years ago. But in discussion with Mille, that was changed to “Why not the whole case?!” A mock-up in Perspex was put together, and once all agreed, the project began to take shape. The first step to consider “Is there anyone else out there crazy enough to give this a try!?” Stettler To undertake the project, Mille turned to Switzerland’s and possibly the world’s foremost crystal firm “Stettler Sapphire”. A privately-held, family-run firm, it is the typical example of a Swiss specialisation. Stettler produces the sapphire crystals for a number of high-end watch firms; certainly a few from the Richemont Group, from the LVMH group, and other larger and smaller independents who require complex crystal shapes for their watches. Mille had used Stettler for the crystal dials on his watches already, so he knew of their premier status and quality in the market. Founded in 1881, the company initially produced jewels for watch movements, but in the late 1920s Stettler moved over to sapphire crystal production. There are two centres of production. The factory in Switzerland deals with the research and development, and the production of complex orders. The factory in Mauritius deals with the regular production sapphire crystals that are generally machine-produced. Stettler’s position in the industry is such that most of us wear a watch with a Stettler sapphire crystal covering the dial. A crystal is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. The atomic structure makes sapphire crystal similar to and second only to diamond in terms of hardness. It makes the crystal resistant to any change in shape, but by the same token, it is very difficult to machine into a complex shape. Crystals are grown from an initial seed by a variety of methods. The resulting raw crystal shapes are then used for a number of different purposes. The smaller, round, crystals produced by – for example – the Stepanov method are cut to into discs, shaped to be perfectly round, and then polished on machines that revolve the discs against a paste. Get enough cutting machines, and enough polishing discs, and you can produce about 60,000 round flat watch crystals in a year for any one set of machines. Crystals for more complex shapes are grown by the Kyropoulos method which allows the growth of large sapphire crystals with a first- or second-grade optical quality. It is crystal grown by this method that is used in the Richard Mille RM 056 case. A step in complexity above that are curved surface crystals for various watch brands, as well as the crystal that was developed for the RM 053-01. Other watch brands have attempted crystal watch cases, but generally, the case has been round, with flat surfaces, and without any complexity inside the case that is required to hold the movement. If the requirement is that the case is flat on the surfaces, the machining and polishing of the crystals is a reasonably straightforward task. Not easy, but within the bounds of what was known about machining more complicated shapes with crystal on a small scale. The Complexities of the Crystal RM 056 Case Shape What is different about the Richard Mille watch case is the three-part structure, where the three parts have to fit to within an allowance of 1/100 of a millimetre. The RM 056 is after all, a fully functioning Richard Mille case with a water resistant rating of 30 metres. It is one of the most complex case shapes to manufacture – even when the case is made out of known materials – as the tolerances are such that specialised measuring equipment is employed to ensure accuracy. The upper and lower parts of the case are both curved and non-monotonic. In other words, the curvature is not a constant over the surface shallow at one part, slightly steeper in another. With an exact CNC machine, such curved surfaces can be achieved within the necessary tolerances. For crystal, it is a whole new game. Chief among the problems is that while you can cut the general shapes for the crystal parts for the case, it is the finishing and polishing where the problems really start. The real problem is that the polishing cannot be seen! Submerged within a pot of viscous sand, the polishing takes place in an area where no measurement can be taken. To polish the surfaces to the standard required, the piece has to be removed from the polishing machine and periodic measurements made. Anything not within the 1/100th of a millimetre tolerance at all points of contact between the case parts, the part is rejected and the process starts all over again. Further problems arise with the drilling of the holes for the screws, pushers and crown. At any one moment the drilling can cause the crystal to crack or shatter and all the work thus far is lost. The whole process seems to just be waiting for a disaster to happen! The middle part of the Richard Mille case is intricate and contains a number of ridges where the movement is screwed into the case. All ridges and surfaces have to be polished to an exacting standard, there is nowhere to hide in a clear crystal case! Cresting Hurdles One way to give the cost’ of the research and development for the RM 056 some perspective, is to consider what else could have been achieved with the same resources an opportunity cost committed towards fabricating the case. Think of it this way, instead of producing the five Richard Mille RM 056 cases in each iteration the RM 056, RM 056-01, and the RM 056-02, Stettler could have produced approximately 60,000 curved watch crystals in the year. The annual production for the whole factory would be about 120,000. In other words, five RM 056 cases represented half of Stettler’s annual production. Five RM 056 cases took a year to produce; or about two and a half months each. Just the necessary outlay on the new ultrasonic cutting machine was approximately the entire year’s revenue on normal spherical sapphire crystals. The work also required considerable investment by Stettler underwritten by Mille’s order. Without the advent of the new ultrasound polishing and cutting machines, all of which had to be acquired for the new work, the project would not have been possible. The RM 056 case is at the outer limit of what is known and possible with cutting and polishing sapphire crystal. The project had been in development for just over three years, once Mille signed up to the idea. A Trail of “Bleeding Edge” Innovation Once Mille had developed the technology he was able to push forward and develop more complex sapphire crystal watches the RM 056-01, RM 056-02 and the RM 053-01. What started out as research and development for just a single watch case turned out to be basis for a series of watches and a watch that can withstand the most brutal of impacts on the crystal itself. The RM 056 series has stood out as the forefront of sapphire crystal research. The RM 056-01 went one step further and had bridges, at times wafer thin, cut and polished from crystal. Likewise, the RM 056-02 was a masterpiece of crystal case complexity. For the RM 056-02 Richard employed the same tension cable system as he had with the RM027-01; but the effect of cutting and then polishing a complete sapphire crystal case with the necessary interior elements to support the tension cable resulted in a sapphire crystal case that had a higher degree of complexity hitherto not seen before – or since, for that matter. The crystal watch is absurd on one level! Why would you want to produce a watch case that could shatter? You do not have to worry about hairline scratches on the case, but if you knock the case on a hard or sharp object with sufficient force, you could see the sapphire case crack or even shatter in front of you. But the RM 056 series are opus watches and fulfil the governing philosophy that it is not the material that should be seen as the value element in the watch, but the techniques and work invested to develop that material to the finished watch. That’s Richard Mille! It has always been his philosophy to attempt the new, the seemingly impossible, and to complete it. Not to count the cost, but to show what can be done; to go with the commitment and enthusiasm for the new, and the resolve to see it through to the end. The RM 056 series and the research into sapphire crystals has spawned a series of crystal watches by other watch firms. Richard Mille might not have been the first but the other watches were simple round cases with standard movements. What Mille did was something completely different and because of that, he was the precursor to the current spate of crystal case watches on the market. The casework and design entailed both the vision to see it, see it through, and the research and technical achievements to realise that vision. It becomes a lot easier to see a solution once someone else has demonstrated that it can be done. The racing machine on your wrist continues to lead the rest of the field. At Richard Mille, the fact that a tremendous challenge has been won is never a valid reason to stand still and be complacent. The introduction of the RM 056 in 2011 was a watchmaking milestone of technical achievement; never before had such a complex case design for such an intricate movement been manufactured in pure sapphire. This debut was followed by the RM 56-01, which put the stakes even higher with a baseplate, bridges and third wheel additionally created from sapphire. The RM 56-02 Sapphire and its new movement, taking cues from the mechanical architecture of the RM 27-01 Rafael Nadal and its cable suspended movement is at the pinnacle of transparency. Calibre RM56-02 Manual winding tourbillon movement with hours, minutes and tension indicator. Limited edition of 10 pieces In this fashion the baseplate of the RM 56-02, created from grade 5 titanium, is entirely suspended within the sapphire watchcase by specially developed single braided cable of only thickness, woven within a system of 4 pulleys on posts at the movement’s corners and another 6 pulleys placed along the movement’s periphery. The tension of the cable is perfectly controlled by a miniature ratchet at 9 o’clock. This entire cable unit is attached to a separate indicator located below 12 o’clock allowing an easy visual inspection of the cable tension, to ensure that it is always operating within the designated norms. In this fashion the baseplate of the RM 56-02, created from grade 5 titanium, is entirely suspended within the sapphire watchcase by specially developed single braided cable of only thickness, woven within a system of 4 pulleys on posts at the movement’s corners and another 6 pulleys placed along the movement’s periphery. The tension of the cable is perfectly controlled by a miniature ratchet at 9 o’clock. This entire cable unit is attached to a separate indicator located below 12 o’clock allowing an easy visual inspection of the cable tension, to ensure that it is always operating within the designated norms. Other parts of the movement have also been optimized for transparency thanks to the experience gained with the aforementioned versions; in this case Richard Mille’s engineers have added to the previous use of sapphire movement parts a new design of winding barrel bridge, tourbillon and center bridges in sapphire. This fluently executed technical challenge is a crowning achievement of the sapphire family of timepieces within the high scaled variety of creativity to be found within the Richard Mille collection as an entity. Sapphire, created from subjecting aluminum oxide crystals Al2O3 to high pressure and temperature environments, is transparent due to the purity of its composition and has a hardness of 1800 Vickers 9 Mohs making it virtually scratch resistant by materials other than diamond. The tripartite case of the RM 56-02 is milled and ground from blocks of solid sapphire by the prestigious and highly specialized experts Stettler in Lyss, Switzerland, who had the difficult task of creating these movement parts and the unique, wrist hugging, ergonomically curving tripartite Richard Mille case. These engineering and technical challenges are self evident when we examine the reality of creating something inimitable like the RM 56-02 40 days, 24/7 of continuous machining are required in order to produce one case followed by 400 hours of machining and finishing for the different movement bridges. Felipe Massa has now achieved 40 podiums in his career by finishing third at the Austrian GP this weekend. "It’s an incredible moment for me, but the whole team is feeling this too. The team has a great history and we continue to build on that. It’s a special day" said Felipe Massa. After 8 Grand Prix this year, Felipe is now sixth in the World Driver’s Championship with a total of 62 points. Brazilian Formula 1 driver Felipe Massa is the first sporting figure to have joined the Richard Mille family. A long-time test driver for Richard Mille watches, it was he who enabled the brand to initiate and accomplish astonishing feats in watchmaking development. Such triumphs included the manufacture of a carbon nanofiber baseplate, first tested with the RM 006 FM then used in a number of other models, as well as the processing of new materials such the Alusic cases on the RM 009 FM. This collaboration, which became a deep friendship, is now approaching its 10th anniversary. To mark the occasion, Richard Mille has dedicated a special collection of RM 056 and RM 011 timepieces to Felipe Massa, appropriately named 10th Anniversary’. Renowned by experts for its uncompromising technicality, at the very core of the RM056 tourbillon caliber is a synthesis of the brand’s most exciting innovations. Comprised of more than 500 individual components, the grade 5 titanium RMCC1 caliber plays host to one of horology’s most exquisite complications a split-seconds chronograph. This tourbillon movement also boasts indicators for the power reserve and torque, and a function selector. As meticulous in their craft as Felipe Massa in his own sphere, the engineers at Richard Mille have optimized the movement, fine tuning its time-keeping precision and improving the operation of its split-seconds by reducing friction, and ensuring the long-term reliability of the caliber. These mechanics are presented to perfection by their case, produced using sapphire cut from a single block, in a process that required several years of research and testing in order to meet the highest standards of comfort and resistance. Often imitated, but never equaled, this tour de force of style and engineering represented a considerable challenge machining sapphire is an exceedingly complex procedure, requiring no less than 1000 hours of work for each case, including 430 hours of filing and 350 hours of polishing for the bezel, case middle and case-back ensemble. Drake wasn’t about to let his birthday week go by without adding another over-the-top watch to his collection. On Thursday night, celebrity jeweler Dave Bling shared photos of him and the rapper, who turned 35 on Monday, on Instagram. The point of the post wasn’t just to show off that they were hanging out; he also wanted to display the new timepiece he’d helped secure for the emcee—an almost entirely see-through Richard Mille. “Drake hit the HOTLINE BLING to Certify his LOVER BOY Status!” the jeweler, whose real name is Dimitry Shimanov, wrote as a caption. “HISTORY has been made! Sapphire Museum Style Richard Mille one time for the culture! Commissioned by the 47th Street GOD!” While it’s hard to get a good look at the watch in the pictures of Drake and Shimanov, the jeweler helpfully included a close up of the chronograph as did Drake himself, on his Instagram Story. The image shows a Richard Mille watch with a case made from sapphire crystal, making it basically see-through. Thanks in part to posts from obsessive Drake chronicler, DJ Akademiks, the internet has decided it’s a one-of-10 RM 56-02, a reference introduced in 2014. But while that model also features a sapphire crystal case, we don’t actually think it’s the one. Instead, Drake’s watch looks to us more like the RM056, which was the world’s first production watch with a sapphire crystal case when it was introduced in 2012. The timepiece, a split-seconds chronograph with a tourbillion, looks similar enough to the RM 56-02 at first glance, but its dial is a lot more colorful Notably, it features a yellow small seconds indicator, a black tachymeter and a red “RM056” stamp on its crystal. Drake’s version features a tachymeter and clear crown band done up in a rich midnight blue that matches the coat he’s wearing in Shimanov’s photos. There’s another key difference between the watches. While the RM 56-02 had a more expensive $ million retail price than the $ million RM056, the latter is more exclusive. Only five were ever made, and all of them were spoken for at the time of its release. We can only imagine how much it set the rapper back nine years later. The rapper has shown he’s more than willing to do what it takes to get the watch he wants. Before his translucent Richard Mille, the last watch he’d shown off on social media was diamond-encrusted Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse just like one Queen Elizabeth had worn in an official portrait from 1984. What Drake wants, he gets.

richard mille rm 056 sapphire