SIHH 2013: Richard Mille Tourbillon RM 27-01 Rafael Nadal

0 0 Sunday, 27 January 2013 Edit this post

While tennis lovers are waiting for Rafael Nadal to come back on courts, Richard Mille presented the watch dedicated to the Spanish champion at SIHH 2013 in Geneva.

The Richard Mille Tourbillon RM 27-01 Rafael Nadal pushes the concepts of lightness and strength to the ultimate extreme.

The unique architecture of the RM 27-01 Calibre is the result of Richard Mille’s determination to create a movement held in total suspension in the heart of its case. Inspired by suspended civil engineering infrastructures, Richard Mille wanted to adapt the same concept to the watchmaking sphere, occupying a space of just a few tens of millimetres.

The RM 27-01 Rafael Nadal has a baseplate attached to the case by four braided steel cables just 0.35 mm in diameter. This structure combines strength and flexibility to protect the movement, which weighs just 3.5 grammes, thanks to the use of grade 5 titanium for the baseplate and tourbillon carriage, and of aluminium-lithium for the barrel bridges and gear-trains.

These cables are held taut by means of an ingenious mechanism of tensioners (located at 3 and 9 o’clock) and pulleys, which act like pylons positioned at the four corners of the movement.

The installation and tensioning of the cables are extremely delicate operations. Excessive tension could break the cables and attachments at any time and damage the movement, while insufficient tension could put the movement into a resonance phase, disturbing its chronometric performance.

Designed to stay in suspension inside its case, this exceptional calibre can withstand accelerations of over 5,000 G.

The RM 27-01 weighs just 19 grammes, Velcro strap included. This feat was made possible by the material selected for the case. Carbon has the place of honour in the composition of the RM 27-01’s case, which features a mono bloc back. Its anthracite colour is due to the high concentration of carbon nanotubes. The result: perfect resistance to shocks and scratches and absolute comfort.