STYLE Edit: Richard Mille’s new RM 07-01 Intergalactic collection mixes diamonds and gold with its in-house carbon fibre technology – and the result from the Swiss luxury watchmaker has us starry-eyed

Nov 23 , 2022

Lighting up the heavens: the four watches in the Richard Mille RM 07-01 Intergalactic collection. Photo: Richard Mille

Immaculately crafted from Richard Mille’s exclusive Carbon TPT material, the intensity of the luxury Swiss watchmaker’s new collection will leave you star-struck

Resembling ‘an explosion of stars’, each of the four watches – Dark Night, Starry Night, Bright Night and Misty Night – required the brand’s artisans to reimagine the craft of gem-setting

In a little over 20 years, Richard Mille has established itself as the brand that dedicated watch lovers look to for a spirit of continuous innovation, one that constantly explores boundaries in function, materials and aesthetics.

Since it introduced its first timepiece back in 2001 with the RM 001 Tourbillon, the Swiss luxury watchmaker has served up a series of impressive firsts, from the wildly creative, irregularly shaped dial of 2017’s RM 70-01 Tourbillon Alain Prost, to the incredibly slimline proportions of the RM UP-01 Ferrari, the thinnest watch ever made at just 1.75mm thick.

All four of the RM 07-01 Intergalactic models feature the in-house CRMA2 skeletonised automatic calibre.

Now Richard Mille’s designers have reached for the stars with a series of watches that reimagine the craft of gem-setting: the RM 07-01 Intergalactic collection. They do so by depicting one of the most dazzling sights in the universe: the night sky. Specifically, the Intergalactic collection recreates the sense of stars rushing away from the centre of the universe, thanks to diamonds strategically placed over the dial and case.

“It all started with the vision of an explosion of stars taking place in the black darkness. We wanted to rethink our approach to gem-setting as a way of bringing the elements together in an intense way,” says Richard Mille’s creative and development director Cécile Guenat.

Unlike its sister watches, the RM 07-01 Misty Night has additional 5N red gold pillars beside the crown.

The watches are crafted from Carbon TPT, an in-house material that forms a striking contrast with the sparkling stones. The material, which Richard Mille first used in a watch almost a decade ago, is a technical marvel that’s created by dividing carbon fibres into their component filaments, each less than 30 microns (a micron, or micrometre, being a millionth of a metre) thick, and packing them into layers.

That process creates a substance with a beautiful, wavy appearance reminiscent of wood grain that is always unique. At the same time, it offers incredible strength and lightness. Carbon TPT’s hardness posed fresh challenges for the gem-setters working on the collection, who needed to use diamond bit milling tools to machine the settings.

The RM 07-01 Starry Night comes with a Carbon TPT bracelet.

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