Style Edit: Swiss luxury watchmaker Richard Mille’s latest RM 17-02 is limited to just 30 pieces – and features a Quartz TPT case and automotive-inspired skeleton dial

May 31 , 2024

Swiss luxury watchmaker Richard Mille uses innovative materials, like the Quartz TPT featured on its latest RM 17-02 Manual Winding Tourbillon. Photo: Handout

Richard Mille developed Quartz TPT, a material that’s lightweight, tough, non-allergenic and UV resistant – and its brilliant white colour is achieved without using any dye

No surprise that automotive elements abound on the RM 17-02 – the watchmaker sponsors the Le Mans Classic and Rallye de Princesses, and has its own racing team

A mastery of materials has long been one of the most eye-catching characteristics of Richard Mille’s groundbreaking watches.

The Swiss luxury manufacturer consistently ventures far beyond the customary line-up of gold and steel to explore new materials that expand the boundaries of strength, toughness, lightness and versatility. Chief among its achievements in this area has been the development of Quartz TPT, a material that combines all these virtues with a sleekly beautiful appearance. Now, it has been used to produce the 48.15mm by 40.10mm case of the latest RM 17-02 Manual Winding Tourbillon, surrounding a dial that shows off a riot of automotive styling.

Only 30 pieces of this version of the Richard Mille RM 17-02 are available

Quartz TPT consists of a huge number of interlocking layers of microscopically thin carbon – measuring just 45 microns thick, less than a twentieth of a millimetre – which are heated to 120 degrees Celsius to create the material’s unique texture and grain. Inspired by a type of carbon used to make yachts, the material is lightweight and tough, as well as non-allergenic and resistant to UV rays, and achieves its brilliant white colour without the use of dyes.

The Richard Mille RM 17-02’s baseplate and bridges are made from grade 5 titanium alloy

Here, it’s been deployed to create a watch that takes its visual styling from the high performance world of motorsport, which has long been a fertile source of inspiration for the watchmaker. The unconventional brand loves to draw on the technical possibilities of the materials used in high level auto racing, while also acting as a partner to the sport’s top performers, from sponsoring major events like the Le Mans Classic and Rallye de Princesses to running its own racing team.

The RM 17-02 lets it all hang out with a collection of motorsport references that adorn the sort of wildly skeletonised dial typical of Richard Mille. As we’ve come to expect from this innovative manufacturer, it shows off a dramatic, multilevel display of wheels, gears and hands, alongside a baseplate and bridges made from grade 5 titanium alloy for extra strength, rigidity and corrosion resistance.

The Richard Mille RM 17-02 uses the manufacturer’s calibre RM 17-02 movement, which is thin enough to keep the case’s thickness at 13.08mm

The impressive 70-hour power reserve, fed by a fast rotating barrel, is indicated on a scale that resembles a speedometer and that intersects one of the movement’s gears at 2 o’clock on the dial. It appears above another visual touch that takes its cues from the automotive world: the function indicator located at 4 o’clock, which is styled like a car’s gearbox. The indicator displays which hand-setting mode the watch is in at the time, with one of the letters – W (winding), N (neutral) and H (hands) – pointed to by a descending hand.

The Richard Mille RM 17-02 is water resistant to 50 metres

The watch is based on the manufacturer’s manual winding calibre RM 17-02, which is slimline enough that it allows the case to measure in at just 13.08mm thick. Water resistant to 50 metres, it is limited to just 30 pieces, and joins two previous versions of the RM 17-02 Manual Winding Tourbillon, in ATZ ceramic, which were released in 2022 in another limited edition of 30 pieces each in white and blue.