Cover The first watch released during a multi-year partnership between the two companies, the RM UP-01 Ferrari is the world’s thinnest mechanical watch, measuring just 1.75mm from dial to caseback (Photo: Courtesy of Richard Mille)
The first watch released during a multi-year partnership between the two companies, the RM UP-01 Ferrari is the world’s thinnest mechanical watch, measuring just 1.75mm from dial to caseback (Photo: Courtesy of Richard Mille)
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For the world’s thinnest mechanical watch, Richard Mille comes together with legendary motoring brand Ferrari to take technical excellence to another level
Whether it’s in the field of motoring or horology, in the pursuit of perfection, every millimetre counts. This mantra is applied literally in the case of ultra-high-end watchmaker Richard Mille’s collaboration with legendary carmaker Ferrari.
The first watch released during a multi-year partnership between the two companies, the RM UP-01 Ferrari is the world’s thinnest mechanical watch, measuring just 1.75mm from dial to caseback.
While the UP-01 Ferrari is a radical departure from the signature design language of chunky, ultra-complicated timepieces that is synonymous with the brand, the watch remains faithful to the Richard Mille DNA, embodying the company’s limitless desire to push the boundaries of what is possible in watch mechanics.
The resulting timepiece is powered by a ground-breaking, manual-winding movement that features hours, minutes and function selector complications, and measures just 1.18mm. With such a wafer-thin design, it’s no surprise that the watch was subjected to a litany of rigorous tests to ensure its rigidity and sturdiness, which proved that it’s capable of withstanding impossibly fast acceleration of 5,000G, as well as possessing water resistance to depths of 10 metres.
The watch embodying the company’s limitless desire to push the boundaries of what is possible in watch mechanics (Photo: Courtesy of Richard Mille)
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With a traditional crown impossible on a watch of these slender dimensions, the Richard Mille design team reinvented the winding mechanism, eliminating the traditional winding stem and replacing it with two crowns—one for function selection and one to use the desired function—which are both integrated seamlessly into the case in the form of movement wheels.
The case in question is unapologetically minimalist. In a rounded tonneau shape, its flat titanium surface houses four small circular openings, with time displayed in one of them, positioned in the centre of the top half of the watch face. The opening to the right offers a view of the balance, while the two openings of the left-hand side of the watch are for the double crown mechanism. The final feature of the face comes in the form of Ferrari’s signature prancing horse insignia, displayed within a subtle headlight-shaped curve on the bottom right-hand side.
As Julien Boillat, technical director for cases at Richard Mille, says, “shaving off those last millimetres of depth was an extremely demanding and lengthy process.” A limited edition of 150 examples, the RM UP-01 Ferrari is a result of years of work, dozens of prototypes and more than 6,000 hours of development and painstaking laboratory testing.
