Style Edit: Richard Milles technically ambitious new RM 30-01 Automatic luxury watch was inspired

Beneath the beautifully engineered surfaces of Richard Mille’s watches tick some serious brains. The Swiss luxury watchmaker renowned for timepieces of dazzling visual innovation is also constantly looking for ways to innovate technically, creating watches of ever greater complexity, and adding features that make them ever more versatile and convenient to use.

Many of those features have their origins in the world of high-level automotive technology. Richard Mille’s involvement with the world of high performance cars goes as deep as being an official partner and sponsor of motorsport events including the Le Mans Classic, Rallye des Princesses and Chantilly Arts and Elegance; teams including Ferrari and McLaren; and drivers. It has even had its own professional motorsport team. But beyond that, as one of the few environments where the same levels of attention to detail are required to push technical excellence to new levels, motorsport is a vital source of inspiration for this most technologically ambitious of horology houses.

A case in point: the new RM 30-01 Automatic with Declutchable Rotor. It showcases the innovation mentioned in its name, an ingenious mechanism that was first introduced by Richard Mille back in 2011 with its groundbreaking RM 030. The watchmaker was already using a torque sensor in its tourbillon watches; the declutching system was an extension of that. Building on automotive technology, it used the sensor to achieve full clutching and declutching control, guaranteeing that the perfect amount of torque is supplied to the movement, speeding up or slowing down the process according to circumstances, and automatically declutching when the power reserve reaches 55 hours – a precaution that protects the movement by ensuring that the two barrels are never overwound.

Why Richard Mille watches are known as ‘the billionaire’s handshake’

This latest watch is powered by the new RMAR2 calibre, which shows off a highly skeletonised design featuring grade 5 titanium bridges and baseplate. In contrast to the curves of the RM 030’s dial, the RM 30-01 Automatic features interlocking parallel lines that cut across its dial, which is made from a combination of titanium and sapphire.

It’s distinguished by highly distinctive power reserve, clutch engagement and function selector indicators, all given a splash of life with brightly coloured transfers. The clutch engagement indicator at 11 o’clock indicates whether the rotor is operating in its winding phase, which kicks in once the power reserve falls below 40 hours, or is disengaged. The function selector, meanwhile, is activated by a pusher at 2 o’clock and appears on the dial at 3 o’clock, right above an oversized date indication at 4 o’clock.

The RM 30-01 Automatic is housed inside a classic tonneau-shaped case that comes in two versions. One combines a grade 5 titanium case middle with a case back and bezel in red gold, while the other is made entirely from grade 5 titanium. In addition to its remarkable resilience, titanium is also incredibly lightweight, and the watch weighs in at a slimline 96g – just one of the many ways in which the RM 30-01 Automatic represents the perfect marriage of refined aesthetics and cutting-edge technology.

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