As hard as a diamond, as light as a feather

With his new RM11-05 model, Richard Mille introduced the gray Cermet to the watchmaking industry. This unique material is as hard as a diamond but as light as titanium, making up for the lack of a bulletproof bezel on the manufacturer’s iconic chronograph.

Richard Mille (Richard Mille)’s eternal pursuit of high-tech new materials is precisely the timekeeper who made the watchmaking Maison create incredible innovations (or even futuristic!). Let us demonstrate the latest version of the RM11 chronograph. This is a barrel-shaped instrument, thanks to the Brazilian Felipe Massa (Felipe Massa), who tested it under realistic Grand Prix conditions. The limited edition RM11-05 has an automatic skeleton movement, and the exclusive 140-piece dial will also feature a machined gray Cermet bezel.

Although the watchmaking process of this material has only been discovered in Richard Mille, this high-tech element is widely praised in other cutting-edge fields because of its characteristics. In fact, the density of gray cermet is lower than that of titanium, but its hardness is 2360 Vickers hardness, almost as high as diamond (2400 Vickers hardness). This explains why it has been used for ballistic protection, as well as for vehicle fuselages in the aerospace field, and braking systems for competitive racing cars.

The results of many years of research and development in cooperation with IMI Group, which focuses on microtechnology, Cermet (ceramic “cer” and metal “met”) exist because of its gray color, because of the metal zirconium-based and performance ceramics. The production process of this composite material is a real challenge because it involves heating at high temperatures and forming these different materials together without changing their individual properties.

The reason for this is that in order to fully comply with REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemical Substances, Regulations on the Safe Production and Use of Chemical Substances in European Industry), Richard Mille fake and the IMI Group decided not to use nickel or cobalt-in this type of high technology Metals commonly used as binders in formulations.

This solution has been developed along with the development of innovative processes. This technology is called “flash sintering”, which combines high-voltage electrical pulses with traditional hot stamping. This impact treatment can increase the speed of the chemical reaction in the sintering stage, which is a crucial stage in which the powder particles gather together under the action of heat, and then are pressed into the mold to form a piece of immutable material . Particularly light and scratch resistant.

Richard Mille (Richard Mille) also added other ultra-modern materials to this gray cermet bezel. These materials are known for their lightness and strength. Among them, TPT® carbon fiber is used in the middle of the case and the bottom of the case. The cover is made of grade 5 titanium, and this combination “helps reduce the total weight [Richard Mille said, this is the price of RM11-05]. This information will obviously arouse the interest of enthusiastic customers. This This chronograph weighs only 71.5 grams (without bracelet), so the balance result is self-evident.

Inside, the back of the RMAC3 movement has a visible variable geometry rotor, which also helps to improve the brightness of the whole machine. Its atypical structure not only illuminates the spotlight on the skeleton (the parts are hollowed out to the maximum), but also incorporates plates and bridges made of grade 5 titanium alloy. This allows the automatic movement to combine the nuances and complexity of the mechanism, while accurately maintaining the light weight of 22.13 g: chronograph with flyback function, chronograph and countdown minute counter (9 o’clock), hours Counter (6 o’clock), small seconds (3 o’clock), 24-hour second time zone (orange GMT pointer), date and current month are too large, adjusted by the annual calendar device (from February to March, Only need to be adjusted once a year).

This lightweight, high-performance RM11-05 replica watch reaffirms Richard Mille’s favorite role: a true “competition mechanical” watchmaker.