To everyone’s surprise, Richard Mille and Ferrari have just presented the first watch resulting from their partnership.

We were all amazed as it is not just a watch, but the thinnest watch in the world: we welcome the new Richard Mille RM UP-01 Ferrari.

Let’s find out how the Maison and the Maranello car manufacturer worked together to create this brand new limited edition of 150 pieces.

A new record: RM UP-01 is the thinnest watch in the world

The RM UP-01 broke all records by becoming the thinnest watch in the world, a record that in this 2022 we had already seen Bulgari beat with the Octo Finissimo Ultra.

The 1.80 mm case thickness of this latest watch was beaten by the 1.75 mm thickness of the new RM UP-01.

Surely no one would ever have expected Richard Mille to enter the competition to develop the thinnest watch in the world.

The Maison, in fact, is certainly not known for making thin watches as most of the models have a particularly generous thickness, such as the RM 11-03 which measures 16.15 mm thick.

To make a comparison and contextualize this measurement with other famous watches, a Rolex Submariner 41, in comparison, measures 12.3mm in thickness, while a Nautilus measures approximately 8.3mm.

Richard Mille, however, had launched his thin workhorse by presenting in 2017 the RM 67-02, a concentrate of innovation for the wrists of his athletes, in only 7.8mm (the thinnest in the catalog to date).

The RM UP-01 Ferrari, certainly detached from the consolidated stylistic codes of the brand, remains faithful to its identity and spirit, once again raising the limits of the Maison’s technical and manufacturing possibilities.

This new model constitutes the triumph of Richard Mille’s technical ability and moves the bar even higher in the approach to the integration between mechanics and watch cases in which technicality dictates aesthetics more than ever.

The case of the new watchmaking record

The case, made of grade 5 titanium, is tonneau-shaped, but instead of the usual vertical orientation, in this case the watch develops on the horizontal side.

Speaking of cases sounds almost odd, as the components are so small and there is no depth.

Despite this, Richard Mille was determined to maintain a traditional architecture in which the components of the movement are mounted on the inside of the case; the caseback, which even in this case we could almost say does not exist, also has the function of a platen and guarantees total resistance to shocks in all circumstances.

As Julien Boillat, Richard Mille’s Technical Director for cases explains, “For such a project, it was necessary to put aside all the knowledge accumulated over years of practice and every possible standard of watchmaking”.

He also goes on to say that “This is exactly what we have done during our collaboration with the Audemars Piguet Le Locle laboratories. Eliminating those last tenths of a millimeter of thickness was an extremely demanding and long process “.

As for the dimensions, the case measures 51.00 mm x 39.00 mm x 1.75 mm and has a guaranteed water resistance up to 30 meters.

Talking about the finishes, the monobloc and bezel are satin-finished, with rounded and polished corners.

The iconic Prancing Horse and all the references on the case are laser engraved. The overall weight of this ultra-light, as well as ultra-thin RM UP-01 Ferrari is just 30 grams.

The caliber RMUP-01

Tackling the challenge of making an ultra-thin watch precluded the use of a traditional movement with many overlapping gears and hands.

A new record-breaking mechanism was therefore developed for the newcomer: the RMUP-01 Caliber. It is an ultra-flat hand-wound mechanical movement with hour, minute function and function selector.

This expertise is now a common feature of RM watches; in this model, positioned between 10 and 11 o’clock, it is integrated into the bezel and allows you to choose between the recharging (W) and recharging (H) functions.

To wind the watch or correct the time, however, the second crown is used, placed between 7 and 8 o’clock. The hours and minutes, on the other hand, are indicated on the counter at 12 o’clock.

Returning to the movement, the new hand-wound Caliber RMUP-01 boasts a weight of 2.82 grams, a power reserve of 45 hours and is capable of withstanding accelerations of over 5,000 g.

To ensure a thickness reduced to the minimum extent, the specialists of Audemars Piguet Le Locle and Richard Mille have developed a new type of escapement with a titanium balance wheel that has drastically reduced the total thickness of the movement, while maintaining the same reliability of a traditional anchor escapement. Swiss.

Salvador Arbona, Richard Mille’s Technical Director for Movements, speaking of the caliber concluded by saying that:

“Even in the ultra-thin realm, we were determined to make a watch that met the same design and validation requirements as all of our other models. In this search for absolute subtlety, we had to offer a watch that, far from being a “concept watch”, was up to the task of satisfying the wearer’s everyday life, in any circumstance “.

Price and availability of the RM UP-01

Richard Mille and Ferrari’s new RM UP-01 will have a retail price of CHF 1.7 million excluding taxes.

Converting the price into Euros and adding VAT, the figure amounts to approximately € 2,086,000. It will be produced in an edition of only 150 pieces in the world and most likely reserved for the best customers of the two brands.

The birth of the collaboration between Richard Mille and Ferrari

Officialized on February 22, 2021, the synergy between Richard Mille and Ferrari was what was lacking in both the world of watchmaking and that of engines.

Just think of the Swiss brand’s motto, “A Racing Machine On The Wrist”, to understand that racing is the natural habitat of these watches.

Also at the time of the announcement of the partnership, it was said that the first limited edition model by Richard Mille and Ferrari would arrive in the summer of 2022.

The promise was kept and, above all, it was kept with something that none of us would have ever expected.

What allowed the creation of this new model was, on the part of Ferrari and Richard Mille, an identical obsession for excellence, precision, reliability and innovation.

And you, what do you think of this new creation that the whole watchmaking world is talking about?

Let us know in the comments and, as always, I invite you to follow our Instagram page so as not to miss any live updates from the world of watchmaking.