Richard Mille’s Ode to Year-Round Summer Fun

The joys of chasing summer year-round—a very real pursuit by yacht—is also the vibe for Swiss watchmaker Richard Mille’s latest capsule collection of timepieces. The RM 07-01 Coloured Ceramics soothe the senses with their pastel hues of lavender, blush, powder blue, and mint green, colors that could come straight from the parasols of a beach club, the flora of an island, and the sun as it sets into the sea.

In practice, the design of the Coloured Ceramics is inspired by Memphis Design, the rebellious Italian art and architecture movement that ascended in the 1980s. Richard Mille Creative and Development Director Cécile Guenat says she finds the movement particularly fascinating for its diversity and freedom. “At the heart of the design process for this collection was the idea of juxtaposing colors in materials. Then we enriched this work by weaving inside the ancient craft of guillochage. This creates a symbiosis of the ultra-modern and the traditional in watchmaking.”

In each watch, contrasting hues, shapes and materials evoke the idea of fun and light-heartedness in a very contemporary way. A gray PVD-treated red gold dial serves to showcase the textured Memphis motif, and it is surrounded by other decorative details, including laser-cut rubber, diamond-set elements, and of course, colored TZP ceramic, which is also the material of the top and bottom bezels. Tetragonal Zirconia Polycrystal (TZP) ceramic is renowned for its lightness, strength and color-retention properties; even over long periods of time, the materials will not fade. Supporting the bezels is a white gold caseband with sophisticated finish work, including microblasting and polished pillars.

Powering each of the three versions of the RM 07-01 Coloured Ceramics is the skeletonized, automatic calibre, the CRMA1 movement. Its skeletonization highlights the care given to the high grade of finishing on each and every part.