If you had asked me what luxury watch brand might put a yellow smiley face that first appeared in French newspaper France Soir in 1972 on a watch, Richard Mille would not have been the first name (past or present) that came to mind. There would have been at least two brands I would have guessed before Mille.

In saying this, it is nonetheless (pardon the double negative) not completely unsurprising that they would release a fifty-piece limited edition watch with an RRP of CHF 1,100,000 (excluding tax) with the classic yellow face joined by a flower, a sun, pineapple, cactus, pink flamingo, rainbow, and an old school cocktail with an umbrella on it.

It has almost old school Florida vibes, if Florida wasn’t currently under water on account of Ian, and not in the mood for cocktails.

But there are other places where people are smiling and drinking cocktails, and wanting an RM 88 with a new in-house automatic tourbillon movement, the Calibre CRMT7, that took three years to develop. Yes they dominate, but this watch isn’t just about the bright shiny decorations on the dial.

All of the summery decorations are in gold and made by engraver Olivier Kuhn, each weighing less than a gram. They are on an auxiliary base plate which is then mounted onto the movement. The other base plate supports the movement.

Both the base plates and bridges are micro-blasted black and gold coloured PVD-treated titanium alloy which is 90% grade 5 titanium, 6% aluminium, and 4% vanadium. The movement is mounted on chassis mounting rubbers (ISO SW) fixed by titanium screws, ceramic ball bearings, and a 3N yellow gold rotor. It beats at 28,800 VPH and has a power reserve of 50 hours.

The profusion of decorative elements on the dial is not restricted to those already mentioned – the small seconds hand has a rain cloud and sun on either end, with the hand moving over an ARCAP cloud affixed to the tourbillon and but also beneath a smaller cloud in micro-blasted and satin-finished white gold.

The rainbow has a micro-blasted finish and represents 25 hours of work. The yellow Smiley is also micro-blasted and painted yellow gold, with its anthracite-coloured rhodium plating.

The gold cocktail glass has four parts. The umbrella, the olive (1.7 mm high), the 0.4 mm diametre grooved straw are all polished, and the glass (weighing 0.4g) has a micro-blasted base so as to mimic a chilled glass. The gold flower above the cocktail umbrella is mirror-polished, its petals brushed and rhodium-plated.

The pink PVD-coated flamingo, 0.2 g of red gold, with polished wings and its feathers traced with the tip of a Dégussit grinding stone. The avian’s pedestal is micro-blasted and the part that depicts the grass and water is polished.

For the pineapple, the leaves are green PVD-coated, with the pineapple micro-blasted and polished. The cactus has micro-blasted spikes, each of which was individually polished, and the sun is in micro-blasted gold with polished rays.

The bezel and case back are in ATZ white ceramic, with an 18K 5N red gold case band. This case is made from tubes of aluminium oxide powder injected at a pressure of nearly 2,000 bars. This high-pressure injection increases rigidity by 20 to 30 per cent and makes it less porous. ATZ is scratch resistant to 1,400 Vickers.

The case measures 48.15mm x 39.74mm with a thickness of 13.30 mm and is water resistant to 50m. The tripartite case is assembled with twelve grade 5 titanium spline screws and abrasion-resistant washers in 316 L stainless steel. The flange is black PVD treated titanium, set with white diamonds and blue sapphires.

Oh and if one Smiley isn’t enough, there’s also a second one, in yellow gold, on the crown.

Smiley has a price of CHF 1,100,000 excluding taxes.

[Photo credit: Richard Mille]

Categories: Richard Mille, Watch Profile, watches, Women's watches

Tags: tourbillon