Richard Mille Introduces the RM 07

With a proud legacy that has always been closely linked to high-level sportsmen and women, and their superior performance, Richard Mille is now celebrating the release of the brand's first women's sports watch, the RM 07-04 Automatic Sport.

(Hero image: Ukrainian high jumper Yuliya Levchenko)

To celebrate the release of Richard Mille's first women's sports watch, which took three years to develop, the Swiss watchmaker asked six inspiring and influential athletes to share their personal experiences in relation to the very special attributes of the RM 07-04 Automatic Sport.

The athletes – who include two motorsport icons, the world number two golfer, two track and field stars, and a Winter Olympics triple gold medallist – are Aurora Straus, Margot Laffite, Nelly Korda, Nafi Thiam, Yuliya Levchenko and Ester Ledecká. They now count among the Richard Mille sporting family, exemplified by unparalleled performance, passion, and limitless ambition. The superlative RM 07-04, consisting of a collection of six watches, weighs in at only 36 grams (strap included), and sports a skeletonised in-house automatic movement.

"Our partners are passionate people, willing to break the mould of their respective disciplines in order to succeed. Our relationships are grounded in respect, communication, trust, and mutual admiration. These are key to our development. They help us move towards perfection," says Amanda Mille, Brand and Partnerships Director of Richard Mille about the selection of the six global athletes.

Richard Mille's support for its athletes is unwavering. Tempered by a shared desire to achieve unparalleled performance, this ongoing relationship is reflected in the creation of watches that ceaselessly challenge the limits of watchmaking.

The RM 07-04 is totally in tune with the constraints imposed by the disciplines of all sportswomen. It combines ergonomics and ultra-lightness, performance and resistance, extreme skeletonisation and architectural aesthetics. A collection of six watches symbolises perfect versatility and continuity in the growing world of women's watches at Richard Mille, a world where elegance and refinement are combined with ultra-high performance and sporting prowess.

With a total weight of 36 grams, strap included, the RM 07-04 is a superlative piece, the lightest, boldest and most energetic in this new range of watches. Three years of development were needed to create the RM 07-04 Automatic Sport and the CRMA8 calibre, as many challenges had to be met: developing a new very compact and skeletonised in-house automatic movement, guaranteeing shock resistance at 5000g's, and perfectly integrating the case with the movement so the internal workings are visible. The extreme finishing magnifies the elegance of this uncompromising mechanism. The very compactness of the calibre accentuates the quality of the realisation all the more, as it considerably increases the assembly time by the watchmaker, for whom error is quite simply impermissible.

One of the parts that required the greatest attention was the flange, which was worked as if it belonged to the movement. At first glance, the flange and the movement appear to be one and the same, balancing the architecture of the whole, which includes titanium crosspieces, notably integrating the openwork window of the function selector. The boldness of this construction creates a remarkable play of visual dynamics.

The function selector, a complication synonymous with the brand, eliminates all pressure on the winding stem. Linked to a push-piece at 4 o’clock, the selector allows the wearer to choose among the neutral (N), winding (W) or time setting (H) positions with a simple press. A hand situated at 5 o’clock displays the active function on the grade 5 titanium bridge. Its inverted position in relation to other such selectors at Richard Mille provides a better view of the movement's kinematics in action and further highlights the brand's ingenuity.

The signature of this model is stamped on a grade 5 titanium insert in the caseband. The RM 07-04 Automatic Sport is thus the most ‘airy’ of the Richard Mille's ladies’ models, an achievement made possible by the use of materials such as Quartz TPT and Carbon TPT for the case.

The identity of this collection, imbued with a thirst for sporting achievements and the euphoria of competition, is revealed through its colour palette. The case of the RM 07-04 appears in different shades, in black for the Carbon TPT model, and in creamy white, mauve, salmon, green and dark blue for the five Quartz TPT models. The crown is crafted in grade 5 titanium is satin-finished, microblasted and polished, while the crown's rubber is available in different colours, as well as the push buttons that are made of coloured Quartz TPT bound in titanium.