THE NEW RICHARD MILLE CHRONOGRAPH MCLAREN W1 COSTS AS MUCH AS A 750S. FOR REALS.
There are loads of stereotypes in the automotive world, some apply to owner personalities and the cars they drive, some to their habits and the cars they drive - and many, many more. Some are more than a stereotype though, more like being legit backed up by facts. Sure, it’s not scientific, researched fact, it’s more along the lines of poll results. One that we reckon needs no studies to back it up is that car guys (and girls and whatever else they/he/she/rabbit identify as) love watches. In my circle of friends, loads collect watches of all kinds, and that goes for the chaps who are into Euro cars, JDM cars and anything with wheels. Some mates are a level up, they earn good money and spend it well, but these guys don’t collect watches, oh no, they collect timepieces. Things get even more weird with my proper larney friends, the chaps who are pulling in my monthly income in a day or less. These guys don’t do watches or timepieces, oh no. These guys are into chronographs. They’re all watches though, the latter is actually a style of watch, but you can’t tell them any different. In the world of 6-figure watches, there are more brands than you can imagine. You get the usuals like Rolex, Patek Philippe, Breitling, Tag Heuer and the like, but some smaller bespoke watchmakers produce some amazing watches with 6-figure price tags - in Dollars. Richard Mille is one of these brands, which is also relatively new compared to the established names. His company kicked off in 2001 with the RM001, the Tourbillon, a chunky fat thing with angles and visible guts that is still a banger of a watch today. It launched at $135,000, which is closer to R248,000 these days. It was a limited number watch and the right people bought it, and that catapulted the brand to be one of the most well-known in motoring circles today thanks to successful collaborations with automotive-focused companies. The latest automotive-focused timepiece bearing the Richard Mille logo comes from a colab with McLaren and coincides with the release of the British firm’s latest hypercar - W1.
The RM 65-01 Chronograph McLaren W1 is a beast of a thing, and as expected its design and colourway are inspired by the new hypercar. Now for the watch-speak. The 500-piece RM 65-01 features skeletonised automatic winding movement, titanium baseplate and bridges, the latest-generation split-seconds mechanism with 6-column wheels, and high-frequency balance with variable inertia that can accurately measure to 1/10th of a second. There’s a rapid winding mechanism that allows the barrel to be quickly rearmed in the event the watch stops and there’s a newly designed variable geometry rotor winding motion. The rotor’s inertia is modified to speed up the winding during relaxed arm movements or to slow it down during active movements by automatically adjusting the 3-position weight. The brief for the RM 65-01 McLaren meant the watch had to reflect the character and the features of the McLaren W1 in terms of its shape, materials and functionality. The case is made of Carbon TPT, exclusive to Richard Mille in watchmaking, made of multiple layers of parallel filaments collected by dividing carbon fibres and they have a maximum thickness of 30 microns. The layers are impregnated with resin and then woven on a special machine that modifies the direction of the material by 45° between layers before being heated to 120°C at a pressure of 6 bar and then processed on a CNC machine. The bezel is made of a satin-finished and polished topped with a second bezel in Carbon TPT, as well as RM’s thinnest titanium bezel to date. The tripartite case has dual Nitrile O-ring seals and is assembled with 12 titanium spline screws and stainless steel washers. The crown was specially designed for the RM 65-01 McLaren and is constructed from Grade 5 titanium with a partial, easy-to-grip rubber coating in McLaren papaya orange and a tip featuring the McLaren ‘Speedmark’. It’s a very pretty watch that’s clearly going to make McLaren fans a little moist, and it’s going to retail for a cool $370,000. At the current exchange rate, that’s only R6,495,000. We’ll take two, please.
Take a look at the YouTube video that shows off the ridiculously expensive new chronograph built as a nod to the new McLaren W1 hypercar. We're not convinced it's worth quite as much as it is, especially considering it costs the same as a whole brand new supercar that you can actually get in and drive: RM 65-01 McLaren W1 — RICHARD MILLE | Richard Mille
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