Overview

A tourbillon built around a three-dimensional scene

The RM 88 Automatic Tourbillon Smiley was released in 2022 in a limited edition of 50 pieces, taking as its subject the smiley face drawn by Franklin Loufrani for the French newspaper France Soir fifty years earlier.

The dial is a composition of gold micro-sculptures by the engraver Olivier Kuhn — a flower, the sun, a pineapple, a cactus, a flamingo, a rainbow and a cocktail glass — each weighing under a gram and each required to survive shock. Their execution is minute: the spines of the cactus are individually polished to remove the green PVD coating beneath, the cocktail glass is built from four solid gold parts, and the flower is mirror-polished with rhodium-plated petals.

This record’s material line reads "Red gold". Richard Mille’s case is ATZ white ceramic for the bezel and caseback with an 18K 5N red gold caseband — its own reference for the watch, RM88 RG ATZ, carries both. The label names the caseband and omits the ceramic, which is the material the photograph shows.

Key details

Design and engineering

• Calibre CRMT7Skeletonised automatic winding tourbillon movement with hours, minutes and a function indicator, running at 28,800 vph (4 Hz) with around 50 hours (± 10%) of power reserve. It measures 32.10 × 29.00 mm by 4.80 mm thick on 23 jewels, and Richard Mille records three years of development.
• Two baseplatesOne technical baseplate carries the movement; a second auxiliary plate mounted onto it secures the ornamentation and presents the objects on an inclined plane for volumetric effect, while keeping the assembly shock-resistant. The Smiley sits higher than the rest, on the motion-work bridge, which takes the form and colours of a rainbow.
• ATZ white ceramicMade from aluminium oxide powder injected at close to 2,000 bar and sintered. Diamond tooling was required to produce the curved bezel and its satin finish.
• Gold micro-sculpturesA flower, the sun, a pineapple, a cactus, a flamingo, a rainbow and a cocktail glass, engraved in gold by Olivier Kuhn, each weighing under a gram and each required to survive shock. The spines of the cactus are individually polished to remove the green PVD coating beneath, the cocktail glass is built from four solid gold parts, and the flower is mirror-polished with rhodium-plated petals.
• Baseplate and bridgesMicroblasted grade 5 titanium with PVD treatment. The tourbillon bridge is microblasted, bevelled and drawn out, with a double PVD coating in black and gold repeated on the bridge behind the baseplate to accentuate its lightning-bolt form.
• Figurative secondsThe small-seconds hand alternates between rain and fine weather each minute, gliding over an ARCAP cloud fixed to the tourbillon before hiding beneath a small cloud in microblasted and satin-finished white gold.
• Function indicatorA hand at 3 o’clock shows the winding and hand-setting positions as the crown is pulled out, in the manner of a car’s gearbox.
• Sun-shaped rotor3N yellow gold, shaped as a sun, on the OneWay® winding system with ceramic ball bearings, winding the fast-rotating barrel. It is hand-decorated, the bevelling included.
• Free-sprung balance with variable inertiaFour small adjustable weights on the balance, with the regulator index eliminated.

Specifications

Technical specifications

Buying with HYPA

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