Richard Mille RM 52-06 Tourbillon Skeleton Watch
The Richard Mille RM 52-06 Tourbillon Mask was launched a few months ago as a limited edition for the Americas and I was able to get my hands on the White Quartz TPT model recently. The Rorschach test of the mask is not only an aesthetic imprint, it is also fully integrated with the movement and tourbillon. This plain white version is finished in a Quartz TPT (Thin Ply Technology) housing done by Richard Mille's partner North Thin Ply Technologies. For those unfamiliar, it is an ultra-light and very strong material made by layering very fine thin-layered silica fiber bundles to create a mosaic look. It is a very light and strong material that would otherwise be used for aviation, boating and sports.
The first Richard Mille RM 052 Tourbillon Skull watch was released in 2012. Skulls can be a tiresome subject, but Richard Mille has clearly taken it beyond the usual, with titanium skulls serving as baseplates and bridges, while the upper and lower jaws hold the ruby tourbillon cage. When discussing the RM 52-06 skull, the brand asks "Has anyone seen a luchador, a kabuki mask, a superhero or even a gladiator helmet?"
With the integration of the skull and movement (remember the skull itself serves as the wheel train and tourbillon bridge), the back of the skull serves as the central bridge. All eight titanium bridges connecting the skull to the case are sandblasted and bevelled and visible from the back. These bridges are all grade 5 titanium and are made from one piece.
Replica Richard Mille Skull RM 052
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The RM 052 movement was recently used in the RM 52-05 tourbillon developed by Richard Mille in collaboration with Pharrell, and you can find it under the skull of the RM 52-06. Hand-wound skeleton movement with free-spring balance of variable inertia (meaning greater shock resistance and better precision over time), a fast-rotating barrel that takes 6 hours per revolution instead of 7.5 hours (improves mainspring and overall performance), barrel pawl with progressive recoil, and wound barrel teeth and third wheel pinion with central involute profile (improves torque transfer and overall performance) ). The RM 052 runs at 21,600 vph and has a power reserve of 42 hours.
I want to go back to the quartz TPT material used to build the case. It's been explained several times, but I found an incisive and informative passage on the Richard Mille website about the process I wanted to share:
Quartz fibers are often used in very high performance applications due to their high temperature resistance, strength and transparency to electromagnetic waves. These fibers are specially arranged in layers no thicker than 45 microns and dipped in a resin specially developed for Richard Mille. The layers are then stacked using an automated positioning system that changes the fiber orientation between each layer by 45°. After being heated to 120°C and subjected to a pressure of 6 bar, they are processed on CNC machines in the Richard Mille manufacturing facility. Carbon TPT® is made from the same process but from carbon wire.
For most people, the Richard Mille RM 52-06 Tourbillon Mask is a puzzling gadget that almost has to have a nine-figure net worth to be appreciated. That's basically true when we're talking about a brand that dominates the watch world exclusively. You can imagine the types of people who make up a group of friends who guess what the mask looks like, right? That's the big attraction.
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