TIME PIECES

 Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about 

Richard Mille

1. The first Richard Mille was released in 2001

Richard Mille released its first timepiece in the year 2001, known as the RM 001 Tourbillon. Due to the exclusivity and complexity of these timepieces, the company only released an initial series of 17 timepieces. Since then, a lot has happened and Richard Mille has released numerous models and scaled up its production considerably.

The second timepiece from Richard Mille was the Tourbillon RM 002 which was basically an upgrade of the RM 001, featuring a movement baseplate in titanium and a function indicator with winding, neutral and hand-setting positions. To get started with his first watch, Richard Mille received help from several well-known Swiss watch manufacturers, but more on this later.

The RM 001 had a price tag of  €159,000 yet it still sold out just minutes after its release.

2. Richard Mille launched its first ladies watch in 2005

Four years after its start, it was time for Richard Mille to release its first ladies’ watch. With their iconic tonneau shapes, one may think that these watches wouldn’t appeal to women, but they were very successful. Since then, ladies’ watches have become a cornerstone in Richard Mille’s watchmaking and they have since released many watches for women.

The first ladies’ watch was the RM 007, an automatic timepiece limited to 25 pieces.

3. The first in-house caliber was the CRMA1

As the company has grown and evolved, more and more of the company’s production has moved in-house. The first in-house movement from Richard Mille was the CRMA1 caliber which was presented in the RM 037. This new movement featured many new innovations upon its launch, including the function selector, the variable-geometry rotor, and the use of titanium parts in its construction.

4. Richard Mille opened up its first boutique in Hong Kong in 2005

The company was growing steadily just a few years after it was founded and in 2005, Richard Mille opened up its first boutique. The boutique was opened in Hong Kong, a business hub and home to huge watch culture. With the company’s popularity in Asia, it made sense for the first store to be opened in Hong Kong.

5. Richard Mille is the youngest luxury watch brand in the industry

Founded in 2001, Richard Mille is now more than 20 years. But 20 years in the context of ultra-luxury watches is nothing when its main competitors are often hundreds of years old.

6. The first diving watch was introduced in 2009

By this time, the company was growing which gave Richard Mille the opportunity to develop more timepieces and invest more into research and development. This led to many new watches including the company’s first dive watch. Richard Mille was always known for highly complicated racing machines so to see a tool watch in the form of a dive watch from Richard Mille was something completely new and slightly unexpected.

This year, Richard Mille also released the first watch with a round case, the RM 025 Tourbillon Chronograph.

7. Richard Mille has created over 80 models over 20 years

It’s safe to say that Richard Mille has come a long way since it started. And in a very short period of time if you see it from a luxury watch industry perspective.

Just 20 years after it was founded, Richard Mille has many worlds-firsts to its name, is responsible for countless innovations and inventions, and has created more than 80 models.

8. Richard Mille moved much of its production in-house in 2013

An important year for the company was 2013 when Richard Mille opened its components unit. This allowed Richard Mille, together with its technical and design expertise, to get access to crucial and valuable tools to ” bring our calibres to life, machining them internally and testing them to our own standards.”

Today, Richard Mille has an in-house construction rate of 80%, meaning that 80% of each watch is made in-house. And this number continues to increase as Richard Mille sharpens its expertise and continues to develop its manufacturing.

9. Richard Mille has strict quality controls

To create top-tier luxury watches in the 6-figure price range, you may not make any compromises. This is why Richard Mille has strict quality controls to ensure every single timepiece that leaves the factory. The mechanical Richard Mille watches go through up to 50 or 60 different processes to ensure that it is up to par and as perfect as they possibly can be.

According to Richard Mille, many of the parts are rejected throughout the different steps of quality control. Richard Mille has stated that they have a rejection rate of between 30 and 40%. This may mean things as small as microscopic hairlines caused by watchmakers’ tweezers. Richard Mille only satisfies with absolute perfection, and that is also the reason why the brand has been able to build the reputation that it has.

10. Richard Mille has a highly limited production

When you have such strict quality controls and create extremely complex timepieces with the most advanced complications, it comes as no surprise that Richard Mille’s production is low. Creating a timepiece takes a long time and its production is limited by the exceptional attention to detail that each timepiece requires.

As a result, Richard Mille produces only about 5,000 or fewer timepieces per year. Moreover, the demand is far higher than the supply, which has further boosted the exclusivity of the brand’s timepieces as they are so difficult to get a hold of.

On average, Richard Mille’s production has grown 15% per year since the company was founded and it has produced a total of 32,000 timepieces between 2001 and 2017.

And as always have a chilled day from the Viking