ichard Mille is proud to have always counted high-level sportsmen and women among the brand’s partners. As members of our large family, they are at the heart of developments that seek to continually roll back the limits of the feasible. To celebrate the release of our first women’s sports watch, the RM 07-04 Automatic Sport, Richard Mille asked six inspiring and influential athletes (Aurora Straus, Margot Laffite, Nelly Korda, Nafi Thiam, Yuliya Levchenko and Ester Ledecká) to share their experiences and develop and define the attributes of this watch.

Two motorsport icons, the world number two golfer, two track and field stars, and a Winter Olympics triple gold medallist are the Richard Mille partners who proudly wear the six models in the new RM 07-04 Automatic Sport collection. Perfectly adapted to the constraints of their various disciplines, the timepiece asserts pure performance and technical sophistication simultaneously. The creation of the RM 07-04 Automatic Sport required three years of development because there were so many challenges: developing a new, very compact and skeletonised in-house automatic movement, guaranteeing high shock resistance, integrating the exterior perfectly into the movement while leaving its workings visible...

“We did not take a minimalist approach in this design, we chose an airy movement that revealed its complexity at first glance. Offering a women’s skeleton sports watch is a gamble that few have dared to take. This collection is as much about aesthetics as it is about technicity,” explains Cécile Guenat, Creative and Development Director at Richard Mille. The CRMA8 calibre is a new in-house automatic movement with hours, minutes and a function selector.

To ensure the rigidity of the assembly, the baseplate and bridges are made of grade 5 titanium, supplemented by a black PVD treatment. To earn its sports credentials, the movement underwent a series of rigorous tests to confirm its resistance to 5,000 g’s of acceleration, a major feat for the most compact of all the calibres developed by Richard Mille. Hand finishing that includes polished angles, milled sections, micro-blasted sinks and satin-finished surfaces enhance the elegance of its uncompromising mechanics. The compactness of the calibre further accentuates the quality of the production, as it renders the assembly stage considerably more complex for the watchmaker, for whom there is not the slightest margin for error.

The function selector complication, emblematic of the brand, prevents stress on the winding stem. Combined with a Quartz TPT^® pusher at 4 o’clock, a simple press allows the user to choose between the neutral (N), winding (W) or time setting (H) positions. Its kinematics also are perfectly visible because its assembly is inverted compared to the brand’s other selectors. The hand at 5 o’clock indicates the chosen function on a flange in grade 5 titanium. A part as finely worked as those of the movement, this crucial element in the architectural aesthetics of the piece brings balance to the whole and contributes to the symbiosis between movement and decoration. Depending on the version, the case is crafted of Quartz TPT^® or Carbon TPT^®. Characteristically for Richard Mille sports watches, the colour combinations of these ultra-durable technical composites exude energy, strength and emotion.

The identity of this collection, imbued with a thirst for sporting achievements and the euphoria of competition, is revealed through its colour palette. The colours, from black for the Carbon TPT^® model to cream white, mauve, salmon pink, green or dark blue for the five Quartz TPT^® pieces, do not in any way alter the intrinsic characteristics of these materials, namely their lightness, their non-allergenic properties, and their resistance to shocks, UV rays or wear.

Lightweight – at 36 grams including its Velcro^® strap – the new RM 07-04 Automatic Sport collection offers athletes the freedom to be at their very best in their disciplines. This collection of six watches symbolises perfect versatility and continuity in the growing world of women’s watches at Richard Mille, a world where elegance and refinement are combined with ultra-high performance and sporting prowess.