Despite Richard Mille’s known association with industrial design, and the use of new technology in creating the timepieces of the twenty-first century, it came as a surprise to discover during this trip that the ability to make the flagship watch of the Richard Mille collection comes down to the skill, dexterity, and patience of a lone watchmaker living on the Swiss/French border.
For me, it was a pleasure and a privilege, one day early in June, to journey up the valley past Le Locle and the workshops of Audemars Piguet, Renaud & Papi, to the small village of Les Brenets nestled into the hills above the river Doubs. The silence there is deafening; it is a type of silence highly conducive to exceptional watchmaking.
Here, in a late nineteenth century building over looking the valley with a view that goes for kilometers, Fernand Simao, previously lightweight kick boxing champion of France, lives and works. A congenial and jovial man, he is the lone watchmaker dealing with production of the ‘über’ Richard Mille, the RM008. Kick boxing and watchmaking might seem like polar opposites until you consider what it takes to construct the RM008. It takes endurance, stamina, concentration, and precision to hit the mark. One slip, and you are done for!
By way of Audemars Piguet complications atelier and 4 years at Renaud and Papi, he is now the only watchmaker with the ability to cope with the tension and skill required to create the magic of taking the 400 plus parts that comprise the RM008, and create the living and breathing chronograph rattrapante tourbillon. The RM008 is built, and has been built since the beginning, by Fernand.
Outside of his family, his passions are now the tension of constructing the RM008, and racing on his motorbike. Evidence of this is that the RM008 had been delayed for the past year because Fernand broke his ankle earlier this year and was not able to work on the complicated pieces. In fact, the delay is such that when I was there, Fernand was working on the last versions of the RM008-1 with the titanium, PVD coated base plate.
What I learned from Fernand was just how the ‘Formula 1’ car concept feeds through the Richard Mille watches. The F1 concept is not simply airplay to the use of new materials; the concept feeds through into the construction of the watch from its most basic elements. The RM008’s arrive at Fernand’s door steps in pieces. A stack of trays, each of which contains multiple tiny transparent boxes containing the smallest of components (down to the individual screws) are laid out on the workbench and each of the parts are then mounted onto the base plate in several stages.
Think of it this way: imagine a complete Formula 1 car in pieces, down to the individual nuts and bolts, is deposited at your front door, and you have to construct it and make it race ready before it leaves your garage. This is basically the task facing Fernand with the RM008. It is not simply putting together the pieces; it is the construction of the parts so that they function perfectly (and as they were designed to do) as a whole.
The contents of the trays are organized and arranged in each of the draws, and slowly the painstaking process of constructing the RM008 begins.
Each element in the ‘kit’ has been manufactured and finished accordingly. Hands, bridges, column wheels, wheels, tourbillon and dozens of other parts will have been hand finished and polished. Others will be in the ‘premontée’ state, or pre-mounted state in which a number of smaller parts that form a larger whole are partially assembled, such as the baseplate and the tourbillon cage and escapement. The baseplate alone has many special fastening insertions for accepting the screws that are the essence of the movement’s construction. While each element has been checked twice before Fernand receives it, he checks yet again each and every element. His aim is to insure that the tolerance of each piece separately conforms to tolerances and that they fit together in the correct way.
Various elements of the watch arrayed on Fernand’s desk.
The transparent RM008 dial held up to the light (and checked for blemishes) before it is fitted into the case.
The PVD base plate for the RM008 (having carefully been unwrapped from the tissue paper in which it arrived).
The ‘Richard Mille’ bezel with tachometer scaling.
The tourbillon cage plus escapement.
The ‘Richard Mille’ characteristic screw; note that even these have been manufactured and polished to very exacting standards.
It will take Fernand somewhere between 3 and 4 weeks to basically assemble the RM008 before the watch moves on again for final testing. Any problems in final testing will see the watch return to Fernand’s workshop for further work. In total, at this stage of completion for the RM008, somewhere between 6 to 8 weeks will be required to assemble and fine tune the watch. With the current back order of approximately 20 watches, Fenand will be alone with the RM008 for some time to come.
When I was at Fernand’s atelier he was starting work on the construction of the latest RM008 to leave his workshop. In this instance, the base plate was the PVD coated v1 version. Fernand’s task that afternoon was the construction of the barrels for the winding mechanism. Even at this level of detail, the Richard Mille philosophy in watch design is apparent and the F1 philosophy evident. The barrel cover is held closed with three screws that allows an easy interchange of winding springs, whereas most watches use a sprung cover, making access more tricky. This F1 inspired ability to interchange parts quickly is thought out down to the use of these screws to maintain the lid of the winding barrel and the light yet strong winding barrel bridge. Indeed, when I asked Fernand to disassemble a barrel for me, it only took him a matter of seconds to have it in several pieces and the winding spring free and clear.
The winding barrel covers with ‘snailing’ finish. In the lower left corner is a completed winding barrel assembly. The component parts range from the winding spring (on a blue gum) at top left to the lid of the barrel assembly at bottom right. In between are the base for the winding barrel assembly and a screw pin.
The completed winding barrel set.
The winding gears and the specially constructed ‘possage’ whichs holds the unit tightly so that Fernand can complete construction and fine tune it.
While the parts are all constructed elsewhere, and then delivered to Fernand’s atelier, it takes the watchmaker’s skill to make the parts mesh and synchronize, and work as one. Fernand coaxes the part and finds the degree at which the tolerances meet, so that the finished whole is more than the sum of its parts. Once finished, the movement will be cased, which entails assembly of the bezels, crystals, dial and flanges into the case. The case before mounting is delivered with holding screws. The case with the holding screws resembles something of a futuristic sculpture.
Fernand will soon have to deal with the carbon nanofibre baseplates. He confessed that as a preference, he would rather not. Despite the fact that he recognizes the benefits from using the carbon fibre, the competitor in him relishes the concentration and the brinkmanship of working with the PVD plated base. One slip with the PVD coating, one dropped screw or wheel, and the smallest of blemishes will result in the loss of hours and hours of work. The watch will be taken apart, a new baseplate constructed, and work would begin again. Despite the handful of watchmakers who started on the RM008’s back in the development stage, only Fernand could stand the pace; he is the last one standing.
Corollary. There are no finished RM008's in Fernand's workshop. As soon as he is finished, the watch is delivered to the eagerly awaiting client. Hence, pictures of the RM008 under construction can be found here:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/406232/message/1114912154/Under+construction
Finished RM008's are here. Complex is an understatement.
http://www.network54.com/Forum/406232/message/1114912180/PG
http://www.network54.com/Forum/406232/message/1114912320/WG
http://www.network54.com/Forum/406232/message/1114912419/PG
http://www.network54.com/Forum/406232/message/1122818048/PT
Authors note: I wish to thank Theodore Diehl (Press and Public Relations Officer for Richard Mille watches) and Richard Mille for their kind support, cooperation, and help in facilitating this article.
