The Pro Art facility , located in Les Breuleux
its size , it was extremely light . The concave curving case back fits the anatomy of the wrist perfectly and was visually exciting and extremely comfortable to wear . Ever since then I have been fascinated by the Richard Mille approach in creating holistic relationships that unite the interior and exterior of the watch .
“ Casing sounds simple but the reality is that it is a time-consuming and delicate job requiring very complex machining ,” explains Theodore Diehl , my guide and the company spokesman at Richard Mille . He showed me samples of watch cases in various stages of completion during my visit .
“ Richard has a fabulous sports car collection and is himself an avid amateur racer ,” Diehl continued . “ He draws his inspiration for exotic and / or lightweight raw materials from the world of Formula 1 racing cars , sailing and aviation as inspiration .” Looking through the case samples , I noticed that they had one thing in common : they were indeed all very light for their sizes .
PLANT TOUR “ Let me take you on a plant tour ,” Diehl suggested . I willingly obliged . We walked through the machining section where parts were being processed on state-of-the art CNC machines .
This plant has to cope with a number of challenges . For one thing , Richard Mille watch cases are extremely difficult to produce due to the large number of curves and angles they encompass .
2016 | Wristwatch 61