Embrace an eternal summer with Richard Mille’s RM 07-01 Coloured Ceramics Endless Summer collection. This special series features three distinct watches, each reflecting an Italian design influence.
Cécile Guenat, creative and development director at Richard Mille, says: “Memphis Design’s boundless creativity has always intrigued me. We aimed to break free from traditional design limitations by experimenting with various materials in our creations. The collection’s essence revolves around the seamless fusion of colours and materials."
To up the ante, the technical team integrated the ancient art of guilloché for the dial, blending the ultra-modern with traditional watchmaking — a true embodiment of the Richard Mille philosophy. Ceramic is a light-enough material that does not get in the way of your daily activities. This watch maintains its balance and retains its original vibrancy over time, always looking as fresh as the day you first wore it.
Guillochage involves the meticulous application of individual lines that intersect and combine to create geometric patterns, adding texture to an otherwise plain surface. These patterns play with light and shadow in subtle and captivating ways.
To achieve the desired result, the guilloché must maintain constant pressure on the white gold surface, removing the same amount of gold at each step and preserving the final appearance’s integrity. A grey PVD-treated red gold dial proudly displays the engraved Memphis motif, surrounded by additional decorative elements in coloured ceramic, laser-cut rubber appliques, and diamond-set accents.
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The Coloured Ceramics Endless Summer collection has three vibrant colours: blush pink, lavender, and powder blue TZP ceramics. The tetragonal zirconia polycrystal (TZP) ceramic used for the bezel and caseback is known for its lightweight, robust, and colour-retaining qualities. This refined material retains its balanced and unfaded hue over extended periods of time, maintaining a fresh appearance.
The in-house skeletonised automatic winding CRMA2 movement is placed by bezels fixed onto white gold, microblasted casebands with polished pillars. Grade 5 titanium is used for the bridges and baseplate.
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All components are skeletonised to maximise the passage of light and space and highlight the movement’s meticulous craftsmanship, featuring drawn, chamfered, and polished surfaces complemented by microblasted and electroplasma treatments. Despite this delicate appearance, this intricate metalwork stands resilient, successfully passing the brand’s rigorous shock tests.
The CRMA2 movement features a variable-inertia balance, ensuring consistent long-term performance, and a 5N 18K red gold variable-geometry rotor, which adjusts the watch’s winding to the wearer’s activity level. Paired with a full involute gear train, this combination strikes an ideal balance between performance and precision, granting the RM 07-01 a power reserve of approximately 50 hours.
Each of the three RM 07-01 Coloured Ceramics variations embodies the spirit of enjoyment and light-heartedness with distinct colours, shapes, and materials. They represent a thoroughly contemporary approach, emphasising a genuine respect for horological heritage, innovative utilisation of cutting-edge materials, and a commitment to technical excellence, firmly departing from conventional watch design conventions.
