The Gemset Sapphire RM 07-02 by Richard Mille
The RM 07-02 Automatic Sapphire brings a feminine approach to technique, cloaking it with divine tones while maintaining transparency. Share
Gold had already lost its pride of place in the gemset ceramic and Carbon TPT® watches. With the gemset sapphire, the brand expresses its new approach to diamonds through coloured sapphire. Setting each element is a real engineering feat requiring a laser operating to the nearest micrometre. Prongs in red or grey hand-polished gold, made separately, are then inserted, creating multiple settings to hold a delicate row of diamonds. The crystalline hue of the sapphire enhances the subtle alternating rhythm between the brightness of the twelve diamond lines and the brand’s emblematic design of the case screws.
‘This watch is a complete work of art, because every detail has been consciously expressed and everything you see complements and supports every other part. When you look closer through the sapphire, you see all the details of the movement structure and finishing that have also been designed to be pleasing to the eye, as well as the fine diamond setting of the interior’.
The baseplate and the bridges are machined from 18K red gold or white gold, which is microblasted and bevelled by hand. The baseplate is decorated and set with hundreds of diamonds, an aesthetic feat achieved thanks to the long and delicate work of the gem setter. The skeletonised baseplate and bridges were subjected to separate and extensive validation tests to optimise their resistance capacities.
The rotor allows to be set according to the owner’s activity level. The setting is modified by adjusting two weights that can be adjusted and fixed in place by spline screws. The inertia of the movement is increased when the two weights are closer to each other; the barrel then rewinds more quickly. If the weights are positioned at the extremities of the rotor, the inertia is decreased and the barrel winds more slowly.
With the Sapphire RM 07-02, this case highlights the house’s skeletonised movement— in micro blasted white gold for the green and blue sapphire versions, and in 5N red gold for the pink and brown sapphire versions.
