Richard Mille and Ferrari Pursue the Unprecedented
United in their pursuit of top performance, Richard Mille and Ferrari are engaged in the same passionate quest for excellence in their respective domains: contemporary Haute Horlogerie and sportscar manufacturing.
In 2021, Richard Mille and Ferrari, driven by their shared quest for perfection, joined forces to create a long-term partnership. Naturally, Richard Mille felt compelled to celebrate this budding relationship by creating an exceptional timepiece. After many years of development, the RM UP-01 Ferrari has emerged, breaking with the Swiss watchmaker’s usual iconography while remaining faithful to its identity, and once again pushing the envelope by taking up the ultra-flat challenge.
With the RM UP-01 Ferrari, Richard Mille is proud to present an ultra-flat watch just 1.75 millimeters thick. Working collaboratively alongside the Ferrari team, expressed mainly in the choices of materials and the lines of the watch, lent the project precisely the competitive spirit so essential to most exciting adventures.
The quest to reduce the thickness of a watch is one of absolutes, the very conception of many components had to be entirely revisited. The approach selected was to distribute across a large surface area the elements that could no longer be stacked, creating a greater symbiosis between the movement and the titanium case, which mutually stiffens each other. The extremely demanding brief made the movement’s performance a priority, meaning it would have to be a caliber both extremely thin and equipped with a 45-hour power reserve with a balance beating at 4 Hz. The manual-winding RM UP-01 movement with hours, minutes and function selector presents a profile of just 1.18mm and weighs in at 2.28 grams.
The watch’s movement required 3,600 hours of development. In addition, 2,400 hours were dedicated to functional design, and 2,000 hours of labor devoted to the casing. Batteries of tests at every phase of development included a 10-year accelerated aging of parts, water resistance tests, torsional tests, flex tests, and shock resistance tests certifying resistance exceeding 5,000 g’s. As a result, the RM UP-01 Ferrari is not a concept timepiece, but rather a 150-piece limited edition fit for the purpose of everyday wear.
Breaking new ground, both technically and graphically speaking. A high-precision mechanism combining modern lines and performance, aesthetics and ruggedness. In short, a work of incredible prowess to meet the requirements specific to a watch that can be worn in any situation. A model worthy of the unconditional admiration that the prestigious Italian automotive brand inspires all over the world.
