Product Overview
The brand used its immense experience of skeletonisation and of making components in sapphire crystal (Al2O3), gained during research for both the RM 018 ‘Hommage to Boucheron’, which has a baseplate and a bridge in this material, and the case of the RM 056 for the creation of the RM 56-01, characterised by its extraordinary transparent movement.
By using a sapphire crystal baseplate – which supports the entire manual winding tourbillon movement – Richard Mille allows as much light as possible to penetrate into the calibre RM56-01, which displays the hours and minutes, with power-reserve and torque, at 11 and 2 o’clock respectively, and a function selector indicator at 4 o’clock. This quest for extreme transparency at the heart of a titanium movement also led the engineers to use sapphire crystal for the central bridge and third wheel. The RM56-01 calibre, made from sapphire crystal and titanium, is immune to temperature variations and wear, ensures excellent stability and offers exemplary chronometric performance.
The three-part case is inspired by that of the RM 056, with each component – front bezel, caseband and back bezel – machined and ground from a solid block of sapphire crystal. Machining operations lasting for over 40 days, 24 hours a day, are required to produce one case. In order to machine it, a specialist CNC machine had to be purchased especially for the RM 56-01. All the components made from sapphire crystal were machined by the world specialists in this material, Stettler, located in Lyss, Switzerland. This case, which sits perfectly on the wrist, is water-resistant to 30 metres thanks to two O-ring seals in transparent Nitrile, and is fixed around the caliber RM56-01 using 24 grade 5 titanium spline screws.
