It will come as no surprise that Richard Mille, the man behind the Swiss luxury watch brand, loves cars. When the brand debuted its first timepiece in 2001, a titanium tourbillon model, it dubbed its creation ‘a racing machine on the wrist’. Not an heirloom, a piece of art or some precious artisanal thing. Rather, an engineered and crafted object that embodies precision and performance. The descriptor and slogan remains to this day: analogous to the bleeding edge of technology that goes faster, further and longer.
Just a year after the brand made its splashy debut, Richard Mille partnered with a racing event: Le Mans Classic. It is an offshoot of the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans, the most prestigious endurance motorsport event in the world. Held in the summer, teams of drivers race over 24 hours to complete the greatest distance. Unlike typical racing events in which speed is the first and dominating objective, Le Mans prizes top speeds and the ability to stay in that mode for extended periods of time.
Le Mans Classic is an automobile lover’s twist on the concept with drivers racing vintage and classic cars made between 1923 and 1981. The adulation of tradition and classics in a fast, forward-moving field echoes the Richard Mille spirit in a way. For all its high-tech materials and innovations, Richard Mille watches simmer with a love for the anachronisms of watchmaking: the classical signature tonneau silhouette, and the obsession with precision, robustness and ergonomics— taken to dazzling extremes, of course.
Since 2008, the brand has released a biennial special edition timepiece dedicated to Le Mans Classic. The details and forms have shifted in each edition for novelty, but there is always a core look of green and white to match the official colours of the race. This year, the brand introduces the 150-piece RM 30-01 Le Mans Classic, a design that wears its love for the sport inside and out.
The case of the RM 30-01 Le Mans Classic is crafted from titanium and green quartz TPT, signature materials of the watchmaker. On the skeletonised dial, a green chequered flag frames the date window, and the 55-hour power reserve indicator is shaped like a racetrack. Inside, the RMAR2 movement comes with a racing-apt feature named the declutchable rotor. Essentially, the watch will automatically disconnect and disengage the winding rotor when it is fully powered. Only when the power reserve hits 40 hours will the rotor re-engage to continue winding. The idea is to make the watch run smoothly for longer by eliminating excessive and unnecessary winding. It’s endurance, in Richard Mille’s way.
The detail that may speak most to racing connoisseurs, however, is a subtle one. The 24-hour display on the dial wittily pays homage to the long-standing 4pm start time of Le Mans. It’s made of two discs. The ‘16’ numeral on the stationary outer disc is shaded green, while the inner rotating disc turns its ‘16’ numeral into an arrow indicator. It’s the kind of attention to detail and cultural lore—a far cry from a logo slapped on a collab—that proves the brand’s genuine love for the sport.
The September ‘Big Fall Issue’ of Vogue Singapore is available online and on newsstands.
