BY JOVAN K
If you thought Richard Mille was done with football after the Roberto Mancini models, you might want to take a seat. Just to clarify, we’re talking about real football here, as it’s called in the civilized world; and “soccer” elsewhere. The new RM 41-01 Tourbillon Soccer is here, and it is basically a mechanical referee strapped to your wrist.
The case follows the usual tonneau shape we expect, but the materials are where things get interesting. You can get it in a volcanic rock composite called Basalt TPT or a dark blue Quartz TPT. Both executions share a Carbon TPT mid case. At 43.23mm x 16.08mm, this is a tall case; no attempt was made to hide it. The volume is necessary given the complexity packed inside. Its height lines up closely with the RM 11 03, making the wearing experience easy to place if you have handled that model before.
The dial is a complex map of gears and tracks, but there is logic to the chaos. At 9 o’clock, a match phase indicator tells you if you are in the first half, second half, or overtime. It is a clever evolution of the countdown timer seen on the RM 11-01 Mancini, a watch that really started this whole obsession with the pitch. At 4 o’clock, you have the function indicator for winding or setting the time. The real stars are the goal counters positioned within the titanium flanges, which you advance via the pushers at 2 and 4 o’clock. The hands move along metallic rails via a dedicated gear train, tracking up to nine goals before automatically resetting to zero.
The movement was developed with Audemars Piguet Le Locle and it shows. It combines a tourbillon with a flyback chronograph, dual column wheels and two entirely new football-specific complications. The calibre runs at 3Hz and offers around 70 hours of power reserve without the chronograph engaged. Nearly 650 components make up the movement alone, all mounted on a heavily skeletonised Grade 5 titanium baseplate.
To keep it all secure, the watch comes on a vented rubber strap built for the movement of a pitch. If you want one, you will need to move fast and have deep pockets. Each version is limited to 30 pieces. The price is set at CHF 1,450,000 before taxes. It is a massive sum for a sports watch, but for the thirty people who buy it, it can very well be THE watch for a football stadium.
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