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The Book of Millennium Watch Richard Mille

useful technical prowess

Discover the exclusive essence of the Millenium Watch Book.RM032 Diver Flyback Chronograph

Diving watches had to solve a brutal dilemma: meeting the basic requirements to keep divers safe in a straightforward, efficient way, while continually including innovative solutions that were crucial for watchmakers to win over more enthusiasts. Richard Mille's RM 032 Diver Flyback Chronograph strikes the perfect balance of being simple and effective - innovative and innovative at the same time.

something else entirely
At first glance, the RM 032 doesn't look like a traditional dive watch, even if you're not a skilled diver. Forget the usual black dial, or even the dial itself: the RM 032 does not. Forget the usual plainness, traditional steel case and "HMS" (hours, minutes and seconds) indications of dive watches: the RM 032 does away with them too, making every effort to ditch traditional style guides and impose itself, while sticking to a highly technical , exclusivity and unique identity – in short, the Richard Mille spirit.

The first thing to note is that in order to ensure that the dial is visible underwater, Richard Mille didn’t stop there and have the audacity to go with an imposing diameter of 50 mm. The RM 032 is a professional diving instrument and its oversized dimensions leave no doubts in this regard.

A COMPLEX AND COMPLEX CASE
The second point of note is that the brand offers three different versions of the RM 032: titanium, red gold, and TPT quartz, all certified water-resistant to 300 meters. This is achieved through a unique three-piece architecture. In watchmaking, the RM 032 case is one of the most complicated cases ever created. After turning on the lathe for an hour and a half, it took 830 milling operations over nine hours to make it. Machining just one required nearly 11 hours of work.

Like any other ISO dive watch, there is a unidirectional bezel on top of the case, with three red hour markers indicating the first quarter of an hour. The bezel alone is made up of three parts, held in place by 22 screws. The bezel and case are held together using an additional screw fastener to provide more stability and prevent any accidental movement or loosening

A new approach to the mechanism
A third point to note is that the RM 032 offers more than just traditional diver’s watch functions: in addition to hours and minutes, it also features a flyback chronograph with a totalizer between 12 and 6 o’clock, Annual calendar with large date at 12 o'clock and month indicator (shown in numerals from 1 to 12) between 4 and 5 o'clock. Two broad hands mark the hours and minutes. One of the slender hands is the chronograph's sliding seconds hand, while the other is the jumping hand used to count the minutes.

The decision to incorporate a chronograph is rather unusual: any button, including the ones required for a chronograph, is a moving part and thus could easily allow water to enter the movement, let alone if tapped or inadvertently touched.

To prevent this, Richard Mille developed a second locking crown, fully water resistant to 300 metres. The crown and pushers are locked simply by turning the ring, with green and red markings showing whether it is secured or loose. Compressing the relevant seals as much as possible also prevents the movement from being damaged by overpressure or any impact on the winding crown, and further improves water resistance; the locking crown mechanism used has been patented by the brand.

While some may question the usefulness of a large date display on a dive watch, the occasional use of the chronograph seems reasonable: it may be triggered to time decompression stops, for example, while counting the minutes on the graduated bezel , thereby reducing the risk of any error to zero, Richard Mille has solved the waterproofing of putters that had plagued most other brands before. The only serious problem left for the diver is the watch stopping - but that risk is also mitigated by having a running indicator in the form of a luminous rotating disc at 3 o'clock. Coherent, efficient, unique and effective, the RM 032 is a true breath of fresh air for dive watches entering the 21st century.