Founded in 1999 by French businessman Richard Mille the company represents a perfect fusion of extreme technique, innovation and novel materials.
Richard Mille, born February 13, 1951, in Draguignan, France, began working at Finhor, a local watch company, in 1974. When this was purchased by Matra in 1981, Thousand he was promoted to manage the watchmaking business of the new company, which then included the YEMA and Cupillard Rieme brands.
Matra's watchmaking activities were then sold to Seiko, which Mille, left in 1992 to start a watchmaking business for the jewelry firm Mauboussin. In the following years he gained extensive experience in the industry working for, among others. Audemars Piguet, Repossi and Baccarat.
In 1999, in collaboration with Audemars Piguet, the Richard Mille SA based in Les Breuleux, in the heart of haute horlogerie: the canton of Jura, Switzerland.
The first watch went on sale in 2001. It was a tourbillon chronometer with extraordinary performance, later followed by the RM001 tourbillon model, the first to be produced on an industrial scale.
Continuing its production, also strengthened by its collaboration with great sports champions, One thousand launches on the market highly innovative watches such as the RM027, a tourbillon renowned for its extreme lightness (weighing only 18 grams) and dedicated to tennis star Rafael Nadal, or such as the RM038, a tourbillon in ultra-light magnesium-aluminum alloy designed for golfer Bubba Watson.
One of the most interesting innovations in recent years is undoubtedly the RM030 of 2011, which features a gear-driven device capable of eliminating the risks due to overvoltage of the barrel spring by automatically disengaging the winding system rotor when the spring has reached the ideal tension (i.e., the 50-hour power reserve, indicated on the dial) and re-engaging when the power reserve reaches 40 hours.
Another masterpiece is the RM 056 Felipe Massa Sapphire: completely transparent and with the first watch case to be made entirely of sapphire. It is a limited edition of 5 pieces priced at US $1.7 million, and was declared best watch of 2012 at the "Salon Internacional de Alta Relojeria" exhibition in Mexico City.
The RM 11, on the other hand, is a titanium chronograph, as light and anatomical as all of the house's watches, always living up to the quality standards the house has long assured.
We at Bonanno Jewelry have a large collection of Vintage watches.
