RICHARD MILLE RM 50-02 ACJ watch review
Richard Mille’s new limited edition has the courage. RM 50-02 ACJ Tourbillon Split Seconds Chronograph wants to reach a place where this high-end brand has so far only dared to enter during peak hours. The thirteenth room is nothing but the cockpit of an airplane. However, the question is whether the engineering miracle exhibited at the SIHH exhibition priced at about 970,000 euros meets the basic requirements for a true “pilot”, and whether it still does not belong to wealthy passengers or aircraft owners.
If we take to the streets and randomly ask passers-by for the watch marks associated with their aviation chronographs, we might write Breitling or IWC in their notebooks. Bremont, Alpina, Aviator, Sinn or Zenith will be few. But where is Richard Miller?
The fact is that a French businessman owns the Swiss watch brand of the same name, which already has pilots in his portfolio. An ultra-modern interpretation of the RM 039 Aviator E6-B Tourbillon Flyback launched in 2012. It will provide high durability, a logarithmic bezel, UTC time, a flyback chronograph, and a manual stretch movement with nearly 1,000 elements. The public and pilots have not obtained this kind of high-tech phenomenon. In other words, Richard Mille definitely has the potential to produce technologically superior, innovative and high-quality aviation watches, but in many cases, here (maybe) sometimes less.
For a successful entrepreneur like Richard Mille, there are no problems, only challenges. One of his challenges is of course the penetration of aviation watches. As he himself said, the world of airplanes has always been the inspiration for his watches, so the brand will naturally implement projects that reflect its relationship with the Air Force. With the intention of making a breakthrough in the pilot world, a limited series of RM 50-02 ACJ tourbillon minute and second chronograph was created, and now awaiting reports about it.
The way Richard Mille handles watches has some similarities with the aviation industry. In both cases, traditional engineering and design methods are facing evolutionary solutions in the field of materials and their management. There are several conjunctiva. When developing the new RM 50-02 ACJ tourbillon minute-second chronograph, they cooperated with the French giant Airbus, especially its ACJ (Airbus Business Jet) division, which manufactures aircraft for private or corporate customers. It was Sylvain Marie, the head of her design studio, who sketched the first batch of RM 50-02 sketches. The contribution of this young designer is obvious at first glance, although the design of the watch does not deny Richard Mille’s footprint.
The shell is milled from an alloy of titanium and aluminum, with a unique sporty shape and structure. Airbus uses the same alloy to make turbine blades for its machines. The shape of the glass is reminiscent of the typical shape of the fuselage window, the ATZ white ceramic ring and the crown processing with the Airbus logo, which will retain its aviation theme, and sometimes even the cosmic theme.
The effort to reduce the weight of the fake watches for sale is most obvious under the sapphire crystal with an anti-reflective layer. The huge hollow hits the titanium bridges, gears, and completely removes the classic base of the dial from the structure. The graduations and sub-dials are transferred and printed on a transparent sapphire plate with a thickness of 0.4 mm, and are fixed in designated positions by a pillar system that descends from the upper part of the case. This is bolted to the center piece by a dozen torque head screws, and is widely used in the aerospace industry. Finally, it is not only the visual parallel of the watch and the airplane, but also the gilding of selected exposed parts of the movement. With this anti-corrosion coating, Airbus can handle the most exposed parts of its engine.
The titanium-aluminum chassis protects the treasure of the watch-the newly developed RM50-02 movement. The machine has the complication of a rattrapante chronograph (using two central seconds to measure the time of the minute) minute tourbillon, improved operation (21600 v/h, Ø 12.3 mm, position 6), and a 70-hour power reserve indicator ( Position 11:00), the main spring torque indicator (in position two), which allows you to optimize the accuracy of the meter and the display of the crown mode (in position four). The technical monumentality of the manual stretching mechanism adjusted in five positions is enhanced by the sapphire view of the lid and the color difference of some of the components.
Richard Mille RM 50-02 ACJ Tourbillon Split Seconds Chronograph watches do not look like typical pilots, nor do they. Due to the skeletonization and layering of various elements, the clarity and speed of reading data are at least questionable, and we are not afraid to say that they are not suitable for pilots. However, if we regard this watch as a watch designed for ACJ customers, then we must admit that Richard Mille has done a good job again.