Richard Mille is gearing up for this summer’s World Cup.
The watchmaker has just unveiled its new RM 41-01 Tourbillon Soccer, an aptly named piece that aims to track every single moment that unfolds in a game of soccer (or soccer, for anyone outside the US). But this new skeletonized beauty is a strike above its sporty processors, the RM 11-01 and RM 11-04 Roberto Mancini in more ways than one.
“We think in concepts rather than linear evolution,” said Alexander Mill, RM’s commercial director, in a press release. “What we learn from one reference can be the starting point for the next challenge.”
It all starts with the star of the show, the bonkers new caliber of timepiece, which took the team five years to develop. Created in partnership with the folks at Audemars Piguet, the titanium movement is equipped with both a tourbillon escapement, a flyback chronograph displaying overlapping central minutes and seconds, and a function indicator. The fun really begins, though, with the first of the new complications shown here: a match time indicator at the 9 o’clock position. As the name suggests, it tracks the current phase of the game, moving the display from the first to the second half with each reset of the flyback chronograph — and it covers both the first and second extra periods.
The dark blue color of the new RM 41-01 Tourbillon Soccer.
Richard Mill
In addition, you can keep track of the scores of both teams thanks to the mechanical goal counters sitting on the outskirts of the movement. Using pushers at 2 and 4 o’clock, the wearer can mark home and away squad goals with metal rails (up to nine goals, before the arrow returns to the zero marker). The watch, too, is home to a 70-hour power reserve — so you can fit enough matches inside every outfit.
Richard Mille also made sure to remove all unnecessary materials from the timepiece, ensuring that its microblasted pull and other features can be showcased as much as possible—PVD coatings on these pieces help make them legible amid the openwork design. As always, the new watch is presented in the brand’s signature tonneau-shaped case. However, for this model, the case is presented in two versions. The first is making its debut on the RM 41-01 Tourbillon Soccer: a maroon colored basalt TPT, a material derived from volcanic rock that resists chemicals, corrosion and UV rays. Otherwise, meanwhile, dark blue quartz is produced in TPT.
Perhaps we’ll see the RM 41-01 Tourbillon Soccer on the wrists of some lucky sports fans or soccer stars at the upcoming World Cup — if they can snag one, meaning the new watch is limited to just 30 timepieces, priced at $1.94 million.
