At SIHH in Geneva, Richard Mille introduced its new luxury ladies’ watch, the RM 19-02 Tourbillon Fleur. The watch combines a flying tourbillon mechanism with a distinctive automaton feature – all in a characteristically Richard Mille case.
The Tourbillon Fleur has a manually wound manufacture caliber, simply known as RM19-02. Its functions are hours and minutes; it has a 36-hour power reserve. The time can be read on the small dial in the top right corner. Beneath it, at 7 o’clock, lies an unusual flying tourbillon. The cage is 11.1 mm wide, with a balance wheel diameter of 10 mm. But the entirety of it sits between the five petals of a magnolia blossom. These hand-crafted petals, made of gold, will open every five minutes. When they do, the tourbillon rises 1 mm higher, pushing out to become more visible. It is meant to resemble the motion of a flower’s stamen; to that end, the center of the tourbillon is set with precious stones to look more like a bud. The petals’ movements and the rise of the tourbillon are powered by a second mainspring barrel and a separate gear train. The wearer can open or close the magnolia manually, adjusting its cycle, via a pusher at 9 o’clock.
RM19-02 has a frequency of 21,600 vph. It runs in 51 jewels. The movement has a Glucydur balance, Kif shock absorption, and a Nivarox balance spring. There are 4 screws around the balance wheel for fine adjustment. For more effective winding, the mainspring uses a barrel pawl with progressive recoil. Richard Mille says that this device makes winding roughly 20 percent more efficient. The crown has a torque limiting system, guarding the watch against overwinding. The case is made of grade 5 titanium, as are the baseplate and bridges. It is a three-part, tonneau-shaped case. Construction of the case requires 47 stamping operations; in total, there are 250 discrete milling operations. The finishing processes require a full day of work for each watch (see page 2 for details).
The case is 45.4 mm top to bottom and 38.3 mm in diameter. The watch is 12.55 mm thick. It is water resistant to 50 meters. Nonreflective sapphire crystals are on both the front and the back of the case. The front crystal has a hardness rating of 1,800 Vickers. The RM 19-02 Tourbillon Fleur is being produced in a limited series of 30 pieces worldwide.
FINISHING:
MOVEMENT
– Anglage and polishing by hand
– Locking sections hand polished
– Sapphire blasted milled sections
– Lapped and polished contact points
– Burnished pivots
– PVD treatment
STEEL PARTS
– Sapphire blasted surfaces
– Satin finished surfaces
– Anglage and polishing by hand
– Burnished sections
GEAR WHEELS
– Concave chamfering with a diamond tool
– Circular finished faces
– Gilded (before cutting the teeth)
– Minimum correction applied to the wheels in order to preserve geometry and performance
