IMAGES: JEROME BRYON; PHILIPPE LOUZEN
t’s misogynist and
condescending,
the idea that
women have no
interest in haute
horology. “The fairer sex
will happily pass over
mechanical watches for the
convenience of a fuss-free
quartz movement,” or so the
unreconstructed, uninformed
male might believe. Not true.
Since the dawn of modern
watchmaking, women have
actually been among the most
passionate consumers of intric
mechanical timepieces.
Fun fact: A little company c
Patek Philippe got its fi rst real
boost when Britain’s Queen Victoria
purchased a couple of their exquisitely crafted
watches in 1851, thrusting the nascent brand
into the limelight. Less than two decades
later, the same house was responsible for
creating the world’s fi rst wristwatch when
they set a minuscule timepiece into a gold
bangle at the behest of a horology-hungry
Hungarian countess.
Fast-forward to the present day, and the
success of 21st-century innovator Richard
Mille’s feminine watches provides ample
contemporary proof of women’s enduring
appreciation for authentic mechanical
timekeeping—not to mention their attraction
to the inventive materials and adventurous
design for which RM is renowned.
Women’s watches reportedly account for
a quarter of the company’s sales volume,
with that number expected to grow to a
third in the near future. Helping nudge those
fi gures along is Mille’s latest ladies’ model,
the RM 71-01 Automatic Tourbillon Talisman.
Produced in 10 variations, each of which is
limited to just fi ve pieces, the watch’s design
is inspired by the sleek retro-futurism of art
deco and the curvaceous shapes of tribal
masks and motifs.
Its creation was overseen by Cécile Guenat,
the daughter of Mille’s friend and business
partner, Dominique. “Women’s watches have
represented a considerable percentage of
our sales for several years now,” Mille notes.
“That said, we needed a modern, creative,
and talented young woman to inject newenergy into our status quo and take the
women’s collection to new heights.” Guenat,
he says, “met this challenge by overcoming
technical obstacles, freeing herself from
consensus and establishing a unique and
resolutely contemporary style.”
Acknowledging women’s aversion to
manually wound watches, which can wreak
havoc on a manicure, the watchmaker went
to extraordinary lengths to develop its fi rst
in-house automatic tourbillon movement (the
Calibre CRMT1), which needed to be both
compact, in order to fi t within the restricted
confi nes of a women’s watch, as well as tough
and light—signature qualities common to all
of Mille’s creations.
A work of incredible complexity, the
case, movement, dial, and various jewellery
elements (including diamonds, mother-of-
pearl, onyx, and black sapphires) are entirely
integrated, operating as a cohesive whole.
The 71-01 required the various experts and
artisans involved in its development to
collaborate at the most extraordinary level.
That these drawn-out, painstaking efforts
resulted in a series of watches created in such
limited numbers only makes this talisman
all the more evocative—and attractive to
the ever-growing group of women hunting
horological grails.FINELY
FROSTED
(From left) RM
71-01 Automatic
Tourbillon
Talisman in
white gold set
with diamonds;
A watchmaker
assembles the RM
71-01’s automatic
tourbillon
movementphilippine tatler. august 2018 123