Richard Mille RM 50-03 McLaren F1
This is the first watch launched by luxury Richard Mille in 2017, and it reflects the ten-year partnership he signed with McLaren in 2016.
It stems from Richard’s sincere enthusiasm for McLaren: in 1966, he watched the McLaren team’s debut in Monaco. This watch uses high-tech materials such as titanium and carbon TPT, as well as the world’s first Graph TPT or graphene in watchmaking. The graphene developed by the University of Manchester is 6 times lighter than steel and 200 times stronger than steel. In watches, it is used to enhance the physical properties of carbon TPT used in the case, bottom plate, and splint. Graphene is also added to the rubber of the strap to increase elasticity and wear resistance. Graphene itself is a new material and cannot be used alone at present because it has too many holes in the current state of research.
The result is a watch with a movement weighing only 7 grams, while the complete watch weighs 40 grams. It is the lightest split-second chronograph in the world. The manual winding RM50-03 movement consisting of approximately 600 parts is equipped with a tourbillon escapement, and in order to reduce the energy dissipation of the gear train, a special gear tooth profile for the barrel and gear train was developed. The performance of the movement is displayed on the top of the dial, with a 70-hour power reserve indicator and a torque sensor. This represents the tension of the mainspring so that the user can wind the watch to the best degree. The crown has a torque limiter, so you will not damage the movement by over-winding. The movement vibrates 21,600 times per hour, or 3 Hz.
The chronograph is controlled by a column wheel, presumably a horizontal clutch. The chronograph control system has been re-developed, equipped with a new 6-pin column wheel, a new clamp design, and other functions designed to reduce the torque change of the movement while the chronograph is running. All these functions can improve timing accuracy. The button layout is different from most chronographs: in this piece, the button at 8 o’clock starts and stops the chronograph, while the button at 4 o’clock stops the double second hand, so that the intermediate time can be read. Press the button again, the rattrapante second hand returns to the other chronograph hand, and the two continue together. The button at 10 o’clock resets the hands. Follow this link to select a series of split-second chronograph watches.
The width of this watch is just over 44 mm and nearly 50 mm from top to bottom. Its thickness is just over 16 mm. The crown has a function indicator, so it can display three positions, winding, center, and pointer settings. In Richard Mille’s classic style, this is a watch that combines superb engineering with a barrel-shaped case, which also determines the layout of the seconds scale, so accurate chronograph readings cannot be obtained. . But I guess buyers of this type of high quality replica watches are not interested in actually using the timing function.
