When you think about Richard Mille, it’s probably in the context of a sports watch. With iconic collaborations with McLaren, Ferrari, Rafa Nadal and many others, RM has become synonymous with high octane horology. Chronographs, tourbillions, world record watches, these are the types of things we expect. However, they’re slowing things down a bit for their latest release, a relaunch of the RM 63-02 Automatic Worldtimer in red gold and titanium, designed for luxury travel rather than sport.
Aesthetically, Richard Mille are no strangers to gold and precious metals and most of their sporty watches like the RM 30-01 are available with gold options. But there’s something about the brightness of the RM 63-02’s 47.00 x 13.8 mm red gold and titanium case that makes it feel like it’s leaning towards ostentation with more intention. Especially paired with the light pink, burgundy and white of the dial and strap.
However, the most interesting aspect of the case design is actually the rotating bezel. Because it’s the rotating bezel that controls the worldtimer function instead of a pusher or crown as seen on most examples of the complication. Simply twist the bezel and the cities ring of 24 time zones will rotate as well, with the city at 12 o’clock representing the local time zone. That in itself is not necessarily innovative, what takes it to the next level is that as you rotate the bezel, the central hour hand for local time will also move to match the current setting. No need to manually adjust the time, it does it for you.
You’ll also notice that there’s no GMT hand because instead, the RM 63-02 features a rotating 24-hour scale where the position of the hours corresponds directly to the cities next to them. It has a fun burgundy and pink day/night indication, that paired with the white cities ring makes the watch feel like a raspberry ripple. It’s really quite funky.
Powering it is the CRMA4 automatic movement with 50-hour power reserve. In addition to the worldtimer it’s equipped with central hours, minutes and seconds as well as RM’s signature oversize date at 12 o’clock and a function selector at 4. The function selector allows you to set the crown to winding, time setting or neutral, so that there’s no risk of damage if you unintentionally move the crown. It’s an openworked movement, allowing you to see it operating through the dial as well as the exhibition caseback. The dark grey of the titanium bridges and baseplate contrasts nicely with the rest of the display.
The Richard Mille RM 63-02 Automatic Worldtimer is a limited edition of 100 pieces. The original version of this watch, which was from around 2015 had a price of around £150,000, so while no official price has been given for this edition, don’t expect it to be less than that, if not substantially more with the addition of gold and a decade of inflation.
Price and Specs:
More details at Richard Mille.
As indicated in the review, ostentatious, certainly, difficult to state anything else other than, it’s a Richard Mille, so what do you expect (along with bold colours, over the top styling and outrageous price tag). Definitely one for the wealthy look at me types.