The RM UP-01 is razor thin at 1.75 millimeters, and is expected to sell for $1.88M.
Richard Mille and Ferrari just released their collaboration, the RM UP-01, a 1.75 millimeter timepiece that is said to be the thinnest in the world.
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“At just 1.75 millimeters thick, the RM UP-01 Ferrari constitutes a triumph of technical prowess and exemplifies a new approach to watch mechanics in which technicity more than ever dictates aesthetics,” reads the Richard Mille website. The piece edges out Bulgari’s release last March, the 1.80 millimeter Octo Finissimo Ultra.
Flatness was always on the minds of the watchmaker and car brand, who announced their partnership late last year. “Even in the realm of extreme flatness, we were determined to make a watch that met the same validation requirements as all our other models. In this quest for absolute flatness, we had to offer a watch that, far from being a ‘concept watch’, was up to the task of following a wearer’s daily life.”
According to Richard Mille, the collaboration is a result of years of hard work, dozens of prototypes, and more than 6,000 hours of testing and development.
“Meeting the challenge of an ultra-flat watch precluded a traditional movement with superimposed gears and hands,” the brand says. “Richard Mille therefore opted to distribute what could not be stacked over a broader surface area by creating a perfect symbiosis between the movement and case, each ensuring the necessary rigidity of the other.”
Grade 5 titanium, a biocompatible, corrosion resistant, and rigid alloy, make up the baseplate and bridge of the RM UP-01. Its calibre can withstand accelerations of over 5,000 Gs. According to the brand, “the design and execution of the entire watch bears witness to a comprehensive conceptual approach to the movement and the case, which are developed in complete harmony.”
And this harmony, expectedly, comes with a big price tag. There will only be 150 of the timepiece made, and it is projected to sell for around $1.88 million.
