Alain Prost is an artist in the realm of speed, just as Richard Mille is an artist of timekeeping. The collaboration between the brand and the four-time Formula 1 World Champion, co-founder of the Renault e.dams team is founded on unshakable loyalty. This time, a shared interest in cycling provided inspiration. Much like the aeronautics and automotive industries, where R&D play an essential role, cycling is constantly evolving from a technical perspective. As for the object of their shared labours? That would be the all new RM70-01 calibre tourbillon, featuring an unprecedented odometer.

Following extensive discussions with Alain Prost, as well as other cyclists, Richard Mille realised that many of them would be hard pressed to say how many kilometres they’d ridden since the beginning of the season. The RM 70-01’s never-before-seen totaliser remedies this by simply displaying the overall distance travelled. The pusher at 2 o’clock can select any of the 5 rollers of the odometer, whose readout is visible in a titanium window. Once a roller selected, pressing the pusher located at 10 o’clock advances the roller by one. The only effort required of the user is to add the day’s distance to the prior total.

The mechanism itself, however, is much more complicated. The first pusher activates selection of a roller, one of the five. Execution is confirmed by perfect alignment of the two yellow arrows. The second pusher incrementally rotates the roller, which automatically blocks, thanks to the carry mechanism. To avoid accidental manipulations, the complication has been fitted with a neutral position (N). Thanks to a spring-lock, the selection fork will be lined up straight, with an arrow at
2 o’clock pointing to N as visual confirmation that the mechanism is locked.

Equipped with a 70-hour power-reserve, visible at 5 o’clock thanks to an indicator powered by a planetary differential, this manual winding tourbillon calibre sports a baseplate and bridges in grade 5 titanium. Titanium’s extreme stiffness enables the calibre to withstand the roughest of trails with ease. Nods to the realm of cycling abound, from the titanium Allen screws that fix the bridges, to the barrel ratchet, which recalls the design of forged wheel spokes, to say nothing of the tourbillon cage and dynamometric crown, evocative of a bicycle’s pedal.

The beautifully finished movement possesses tremendous, almost vertiginous depth. Both its vertical architecture—which lines up the barrel and tourbillon along a single axis—and its compact size were essential because of how much space the odometer occupies within the case.

And what a case it is! Machined out of Carbon TPT®, it perfectly combines tonneau, rectangular and asymmetrical shapes. Taut and curved, its unique lines not only ensure the greatest possible comfort when worn on the right wrist, but also optimised legibility of the time when gripping a cycle’s handlebars. As always at Richard Mille, function dictates form.

In order that they may fully enjoy the dynamic and mechanical qualities of the RM 70-01, each buyer will receive as a gift their very own bespoke road cycle. Developed by Alain Prost and Richard Mille in partnership with the prestigious Italian bikemaker Colnago, these individually numbered bicycles are made by hand and painted in the watchmaking brand’s colours.

I have loved cycling since childhood. In fact, I’ve probably ridden on every road in the Var region of France where I was born. For the last ten years, in large part thanks to my friend Alain Prost, I’ve also been a fan of cycling, attentively following the tremendous progress of the discipline.

Accompanying stages of the Tour de France, as I have often done in one of the organisers’ cars, I was quick to recognise the amazing feats of these extraordinary athletes—undoubtedly amongst the world’s toughest—who give this sport its legendary standing. Ever fascinated by sporting performance, I am stunned by the power cyclists churn out.

Of course, the revolution in the sport’s equipment also captures my attention: the introduction of composites, lighter materials, performance gains in gear assemblies, transmissions and more. As a tech and innovation fanatic myself, I’m well placed to appreciate the many subtleties involved. And let’s not forget the competitive spirit so essential to cycling, which demands efficiency, performance and rationalisation. The intersection of haute horlogerie and cycling, two disciplines in the midst of remarkable developments, could not but lead to thoughtful reflection, followed by an especially inspired watch.


rd world championship title this season>

Nearly everyone knows Alain Prost as a driver (four-time Formula 1 world champion) or team manager (F1 then Formula E, where he holds two world championship titles). What they don’t often know is that Alain Prost is also passionate about cycling and has been riding seriously for nearly twenty-five years, always striving for precision and technique—as Richard Mille does with his watches.



Does your passion for cycling have its roots in your childhood?
Not at all. Even when I was competing in Formula 1 it wasn’t part of my training regime, and it didn’t particularly interest me. I was more into running, cross-country skiing, weights, golf and tennis. Strangely, I didn’t feel comfortable on two wheels.

I ultimately turned to cycling through circumstances that took place during my sabbatical from F1 driving in 1992. My physical therapist at the time, Pierre Baleydier, was crazy about cycling. A former racer himself, he convinced me that the sport could be an especially worthwhile alternative to my training method because I was having problems with my knees and back. Since I didn’t quite know how to improve myself physically for my return in 1993, I began with mountain biking and decided to take on the challenge.

You quickly came to prefer road cycling...
I was planning on buying a mountain bike, but then I discovered racing bikes. I was impressed by the bikes themselves, but also somewhat by the technical—and even technological—aspects, including the use of different materials. Most of all, my friends were already into road cycling in Southwest France and convinced me to join them.

In the summer of 1992, some people from Amaury Sports told me about their plans to organise a stage of the Tour de France for amateurs, around the time of the real Tour. Since this first edition of “L’Étape du Tour” was going to take place between Tarbes and Pau and include the Col du Tourmalet, Col du Soulor and Col d’Aubisque, our little group signed up.
It was a bit reckless—especially since, at the time, I was driving for Williams-Renault and was in the running for the title. But that’s how it went, and with it came an obligation to do it well—and therefore to train hard.

What did you like about cycling?
Even though it’s a difficult sport, I loved it right away. It was good for me physically and provided a challenge as well, accentuated by the competitive aspect with my friends and the other riders in cyclo-tourism events. I noticed that thanks to Formula 1, where your heart rate can often reach 160 or even 200 beats per minute, I already had a good foundation. My legs suffered, especially in the beginning, but once you develop the right muscles and maintain them, you can enjoy yourself. I very quickly began feeling good, to the point where I was unable to go without cycling and the endorphins that it produces.

And it’s a sport where you’re ‘carried’. Modern frames are quite comfortable, so you don’t feel any stiffness, and I don’t get the traumatic impact to my knees or back that I did when I was doing Formula 1 in single-seaters with super firm suspension and aggressive driving. It’s a healthy, pleasant type of tiredness.

And unlike with driving, there’s no age limit?
If you don’t stop cycling, there’s nothing preventing you from continuing well into old age.

You were known to be a very technical driver... are you the same way with bikes?
Like I said, I adore the bikes themselves. I own around ten bikes, including two electric bikes and some mountain bikes. I like experimenting and testing out adjustments. Even a new pair of shoes can produce a different feel.

Do you hold yourself to a specific schedule?
I do. Most of all, I try to ride as regularly and as often as possible, despite all my other activities (Renault ambassador for F1, Canal Plus consultant, and co-director of the Formula E Renault e.dams team, of which Richard Mille is a partner).

I’m going to try to bring a bike along in one of the team’s repair trucks so that I can ride while at a Grand Prix. The ideal would obviously be to train every day; however, I’ve decreased my use of the home trainer; it isn’t very good for my back. But I’m not the sort of person who catalogues my rides and training sessions. I wouldn’t be able to say how many kilometres I’ve ridden since I started cycling, but it certainly numbers well into the thousands. Depending on the year, I ride between 5,000 and 10,000 kilometres, which isn’t much compared to the high-level riders who ride more than 15,000 kilometres annually. I’d say that my level of cycling falls between maintenance and competition. When I’m training, I ride up to 20 hours per week. This year, between my professional obligations and travel, I’ve been closer to 12 hours per week.

Are you also training to be able to compete?
I have goals with regard to the people I cycle with and the club I belong to in Provence. In 2017, I’ve planned on doing five races, each with between 300 and 1,000 participants. I’m also participating in the Masters World Championship in Albi. It’s open to amateurs aged 27 and older, and the level is incredible. What’s more, pros that haven’t raced for the past year and therefore haven’t earned any UCI points are eligible to participate... But I signed up anyway, knowing that I wouldn’t be among the best, but really just as a goal.

What are your limits with cycling?
On the flat, it obviously depends on the speed and the time. It’s easy to go for a long time at 30 kilometres an hour. But it’s always a compromise depending on the terrain. I don’t have enough strength in my legs, so I’m not a rouleur. With my build (1.65 m, 58 kg optimal weight), I’m more of a climber. But hills are tiring too. Going uphill, age sometimes lets you make up in endurance what you lose in performance. For now, I haven’t been training enough, and it’s quality training that leads to strong performance.

Does the ‘cycling’ watch that Richard Mille has dedicated to you integrate this concept of performance?
First, I have to point out that Richard is the one who had the idea for this watch. He initiated all of this. He suggested to me the possibility of making a watch together, since he’s also passionate about cycling. He’s also close to Mark Cavendish, who wears a limited edition even when he’s on his bike. For our watch, Richard wanted to blend automobiles and bicycles.

Is there a specific approach to time for cycling?
With cycling, it’s not about hitting a certain time for each ride, but rather knowing where you stand in terms of heart rate, energy expenditure (in calories), average, and variation of climbs and descents. Integrating all this data—some of which is ‘catalogued’ by the watch Richard and I created—was quite a challenge in terms of watch mechanics. But cyclists want to be aware of all of these parameters. They make it possible to set personal objectives and to have a better understanding of how you stack up to the competition, or even just go out and ride with a club. The cycle compters is an example of an element that is integrated in the watch.

Were you involved in the design process?
We had some epic discussions with Richard. He asked me a lot of questions on technical aspects and aesthetics, and our exchanges sometimes veered off into frenzy. He listened to my ideas and opinions, but he’s ultimately the one who made the decisions. I have complete confidence in his choices—he’s never been wrong.

Among the principles behind all of Richard’s watch designs for athletes, one is essential: each watch must be able to be worn by the athlete while doing his or her sport. Though at first it wasn’t easy to convince Rafael Nadal to wear a watch while playing, once he tried it, he never stopped. We collaborated and worked on this watch for more than a year and a half.

As with automobiles, do you think about danger?
Paradoxically, even in Formula 1, I have always been careful with danger—and I have held onto this with cycling. At each of the cyclo-sportive events that I participate in, there are between 300 and 1,000 racers—so it’s always a bit tight, and the pace is very fast. If it’s raining, I don’t even line up for the start. I try to stay away from anywhere there might be a risk of falling. In early spring, I fell going at a snail’s pace and it took me three weeks to recover. Knowing the pain that results from a fall, I get a knot in the pit of my stomach when I watch a sprint on television. Even though I have a decent grasp on choosing lines, I am increasingly careful with descents. Of course, everything depends on the road conditions, but I’m not very good with descending. Like with a car, you always need to anticipate what’s coming. That’s the trick for staying on the saddle!

Produced in an edition of only 30 pieces, this new creation was developed in collaboration with Alain Prost, an avid cyclist, and it was to this discipline that Richard Mille turned for inspiration.

All mechanical systems are fascinating. From automobiles and aeronautics to the human body or the unidentified, every moving object is for Richard Mille a source of interest and inspiration. Considerable gains in performance have been achieved in recent years thanks to the new materials employed in the construction of competition bikes, including titanium and Carbon TPT®—both favourites of the brand. As much for a bicycle as for a watch, efficiency, transmission, assembly and resistance must all be impeccable if either is to best serve its owner.

It was thus a foregone conclusion that Richard Mille would someday focus his attention on cycling, a discipline based on an intensely intimate relationship between human and mechanical systems, and one exhibiting improvements in performance from year to year. That time has come, with the help of Alain Prost, co-director of the Renault e.dams World Champion Formula E team, partner of the brand, and longstanding personal friend of Richard Mille’s.

This friendship made it possible for the pair to come up with an unprecedented complication. The calibre RM70-01 has incorporated a mechanical odometer that, as cyclists are prone to do, tallies the distance travelled by its owner. Never has function better dictated form than in this new watch, whose complex case harmoniously melds the tonneau, rectangular and asymmetric shapes.

Its taut, curved lines, held together by spline screws— and, for the first time ever, the allen screws characteristic of cycling— were designed to guarantee maximum comfort on the right wrist, and optimal legibility of the dial with a grip on the handlebars.

Grade 5 titanium, a Richard Mille obsession of sorts, is ubiquitous in the RM 70-01. Its PVD-treated baseplate and micro-blasted bridges reminiscent of a bike frame provide the optimal rigidity required to survive the most rugged of trails. The 70-hour power reserve, whose level can be read at 5 o’clock thanks to an indicator powered by a planetary differential, lends this tourbillon calibre excellent chronometric performance, to say nothing of the central involute profile of its gear teeth, which ensure an optimal 20° angle that promotes effective rotary motion, or the fast-rotating barrel.

One pusher, located at 2 o’clock, controls a gear selector fork that can engage any of the 5 rollers or activate the neutral position. Pressing the second pusher, located at 11 o’clock, rotates the selected roller. This complex mechanism occupies most of the available volume; the extremely compact calibre was made possible by another horological tour de force: aligning the tourbillon and barrel on the same axis.

The tripartite case is crafted of Carbon TPT®, a high-tech composite material that cannot be dissociated, in the world of watchmaking, from the Richard Mille brand. Practically indestructible and possessed of extraordinary physical properties, Carbon TPT® makes it possible to lighten the case without jeopardising shock resistance—perfect for cycling.

Limited edition of 30 pieces.

Calibre RM70-01: Manual winding tourbillon movement with hours, minutes, power-reserve indicator and mechanical odometer.

Dimensions : 49.48 x 54.88 x 17.65 mm.

Power reserve: Circa 70 hours (±10%).

Baseplate and bridges made of grade 5 titanium
Baseplate and bridges are crafted of grade 5 titanium, a biocompatible, highly corrosion-resistant and remarkably rigid alloy, which enables the gear train to function effortlessly. The alloy is 90% grade 5 titanium, 6% aluminium and 4% vanadium. This combination further increases the material’s mechanical properties, which explains its frequent use in the aerospace, aeronautics and automobile industries. The baseplate is black PVD treated.

The skeletonised baseplate and bridges have been subjected to intensive and complete validation tests to optimise their resistance capacities.

Mechanical odometer
The mechanical odometer can tally distances of up to 99,999 kilometres, but it can also serve as a reminder, as the mechanism makes it possible to specify set dates or times. Adjusting the odometer is done using two grade 5 titanium pushers. Located at 2 o’clock, the first pusher is a selector that can synchronise any of 5 selected rollers, or set the complication in neutral position. Depressing the second pusher, at 10 o’clock incrementally rotates the selected roller. Inspired by the gear indicators on the handlebar gearshift, markers on the odometer provide visual confirmation of the selection.

As this function occupies the greater part of the movement, the calibre needed to be as compact as possible, which was achieved by positioning the barrel and the tourbillon on the same axis.

Power reserve indicator
Located at 5 o’clock in the shape of a gauge, powered by a planetary differential.

Free sprung balance with variable inertia
This type of balance wheel guarantees greater reliability when subjected to shocks and during assembly or dismantling of the movement, thus achieving better chronometric results over time. The index is eliminated, thereby allowing a more precise and repeatable adjustment using 4 setting screws.

Fast rotating barrel (6 hours per revolution instead of 7.5 hours)
This type of barrel provides the following advantages:

• The phenomenon of periodic internal mainspring adhesion is significantly diminished, thereby increasing performance,
  
• An excellent mainspring delta curve with an ideal power reserve/performance and regularity ratio.

Barrel pawl with progressive recoil
This device permits an appreciable winding gain (circa 20%), especially during the start of winding. It is also helpful in distributing the mainspring’s internal tension effectively.

Winding barrel teeth and third-wheel pinion with central involute profile
The central involute profile of the winding barrel teeth provides an optimal pressure angle of 20°, which promotes effective rotary motion and compensates for possible variations in the operation of the going train. This, in turn, ensures excellent torque transmission and a distinct improvement in performance.

BTR and spline screws in grade 5 titanium for the bridges
The design of these screws permits better control of the torque applied during assembly. These screws are therefore unaffected by physical manipulation during assembly or disassembly and age well.

• Movement dimensions: 37.10 mm x 29.73 mm
  
• Thickness: 10.70 mm
  
• Tourbillon diameter: 12.40 mm
  
• Balance diameter: 10.00 mm
  
• Number of jewels: 32
  
• Balance wheel: Glucydur®, 2 arms and 4 setting screws
  
• Inertia moment: 11.50 mg.cm², lift angle 53°
  
• Frequency: 21,600 vph (3 Hz)
  
• Balance spring: Elinvar by Nivarox®
  
• Shock protection: KIF Elastor de KE 160 B28
  
• Barrel shaft in nickel-free Chronifer® (DIN x 46 Cr 13 + S) with the following properties: stainless – antimagnetic – suitable for tempering

Case
Simultaneously tonneau shaped, rectangular and asymmetrical, the taut, curved lines of the RM 70-01 were designed to ensure fabulous comfort on the wrist and optimised legibility of the dial. The tripartite case employs Carbon TPT® a remarkable material with a unique finish obtained by layering hundreds of sheets of carbon fibre using an automated process that changes the orientation of the weft between layers. Heated to 120 °C in an autoclave similar to those used for aeronautic components, the material is then ready to be machined at Richard Mille. During this phase, the many layers of Carbon TPT® are revealed, creating random patterns that make each piece unique. Carbon TPT® is indestructible and possesses exceptional physical properties that make possible a lighter case offering ideal shock protection.

The case is water-resistant to 50 metres thanks to two Nitrile O-ring seals. It is assembled with 20 spline screws in grade 5 titanium and abrasion-resistant washers in 316L stainless steel.

Spline screws in grade 5 titanium for the case
The design of these screws permits better control of the torque applied during assembly. These screws are therefore unaffected by physical manipulation during assembly or disassembly and age well.

Torque-limiting crown
This additional security system prevents accidental overwinding, which could cause damage to the winding stem or put extreme pressure on the mainspring barrel.

Upper flange
Upper flange in titanium.

Bezel and caseback
Bezel side: sapphire crystal (1,800 Vickers) with anti-reflective treatment (on both sides)
Thickness: 1.50 mm
Caseback side: sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment (on both sides)
Thickness: 1.20 mm at the centre and outer edges 2.08 mm

Movement

• Anglage and polishing by hand
  
• Satin-finished bridges
  
• Locking sections hand polished
  
• Sapphire-blasted milled sections
  
• Lapped and polished contact points
  
• Burnished pivots
  
• PVD treatment

Steel parts

• Sapphire-blasted surfaces
  
• Satin-finished surfaces
  
• Anglage and polishing by hand
  
• Burnished sections

Wheels

• Concave chamfering with a diamond tool
  
• Circular finished faces
  
• Rhodium plating (before cutting the teeth)
  
• Minimal corrections applied to the wheels in order to preserve geometry and performance.