Richard Mille and Jean Todd: Eternal Friendship

One comes from the world of fast cars, and the other comes from high-end watches. But French racing giant Jean Todt and Swiss watchmaker Richard Mille fake both praise impeccable engineering and precise performance.

Although occupations may make them unique, the friendship between the two is not surprising. After all, Mille is a famous collector of sports cars and car memorabilia, and Todt is one of the most well-known names in motorsports. But it was Nicolas, the 71-year-old son who really brought this friendship, who introduced Todt to Richard Mille’s dreamy world of avant-garde timepieces. The rest, as we know, is history.

“Richard became a friend; he is a member of the family. He is a creative genius, he has successfully used techniques that no one has mastered so far,” said Todt of the watchmaker, and then listed Richard Mille’s Examples of technological breakthroughs achieved by its Rafael Nadal timepieces, which are equipped with a tourbillon weighing only 18.83 grams.

Miller is his industry guru, and so is Todd. His achievements in the automotive industry over the years are as impressive as the miracles of watches made by Mille. To call him a legend of motorsport is not an understatement. The Frenchman is the chairman of the International Automobile Federation (FIA). He was originally a professional rally co-pilot before becoming the director of Peugeot Talbot Sport in 1982. After playing for the racing team, Todt continued to run Scuderia Ferrari for more than 15 years, and then resigned as a member of the board of directors in 2009 to assume his current position.

Richard Mille launched a timer named after Todt in 2012: RM 036 Tourbillon G-Sensor Jean Todt. Using Todt to participate in the FIA ​​road safety campaign, Mille set out to make a watch to provide practical solutions to road safety problems. Therefore, he worked with Todt and his team to develop a mechanism to help explain the physical limitations of the human body due to rapid deceleration, in order to make the driver more aware of the dangers on the road.

The G sensor system, developed and patented by Renaud Papi specifically for Richard Mille, consists of more than 50 components, but the size is only 17 mm. It converts the movement of a small internal mechanism into an indicator, and visually displays the accumulated G value of the wearer on the scale on the dial. This ruler also has a range of colors to indicate whether the deceleration is safe (green area) or unsafe (red). Only 15 pieces of this watch were produced, and it was officially unveiled at the FIA ​​Awards Ceremony in Istanbul. The sales profit was used for the two programs closest to Todd’s heart: FIA Road Safety Action Global Campaign and ICM Brain and Spine Research Place.

RM 58-01 World Timer Jea​​n Todt

Its success prompted Richard Mille (Richard Mille) to issue a second stock symbol shortly afterwards to commemorate the man. RM 58-01 World Timer Jean Todt alludes to Todt’s busy travel schedule, and has a world time function in 24 time zones on the dial. Interestingly, unlike most other time zone watches, the RM 58-01 does not need to press a button to switch between time zones. Instead, simply rotate the bezel counterclockwise and move the name of the current city at 12 o’clock to set the time. In addition, the 24-hour scale engraved on the flange is divided into white and black, indicating day and night respectively. Its impressive 10-day power reserve also makes this timepiece especially suitable for frequent travelers.

RM 056 Jean Todt 50th Anniversary

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Todt’s participation in motorsports, Richard Mille launched not a watch, but three timepieces to commemorate him. The title of the trilogy is RM 056 Jean Todt 50th Anniversary. This is a very visually striking model with a completely transparent case machined from a whole piece of solid sapphire crystal. Sapphire crystal is not easy to process, so each case requires more than 1,000 hours of production time, of which nearly 430 hours are used to polish it into the desired shape, and another 350 hours to polish it into a high light. This skeleton chronograph is equipped with a manual winding movement RMCC1. It also provides a split-second chronograph function and is adjusted by a one-minute tourbillon. There is also a power display (the watch has a reserve of approximately 70 hours) and a torque indicator on the dial to provide information about the tension of the mainspring.

RM 050 Jean Todt 50th Anniversary

There is also RM 050 Jean Todt 50th Anniversary, which comes with a TPT quartz case. Blue is Todt’s favorite color. Its chassis is extremely lightweight but durable. It is made up of 600 layers of silica stacked, each about 45 microns thick, and then injected with blue resin and heated to over 120 degrees Celsius. Like the RM 056, it is powered by the RMCC1 movement, but its weight is reduced by 20% (9.5 grams to be precise) due to the extremely hollow bottom and bridge plates and ultra-light materials such as carbon nanofiber and titanium.

RM 11-03 Flyback Chronograph Jean Todt 50th Anniversary

The last of the series is the RM 11-03 Flyback Chronograph Jean Todt 50th Anniversary, which debuted at the brand’s Chantilly Art and Elegance Festival last year. Inspired by the car and its rich history, it is equipped with an automatic flyback chronograph. The 12 o’clock position is a large semi-momentary date display window, which can automatically adjust the month of 30 or 31 days. This timepiece is powered by a double barrel and can provide up to 55 hours of reserve. All of these are housed in the same blue TPT quartz case as the RM 050 Jean Todt 50th anniversary commemorative model.

As they said, legends are created, not born. best replica watches uk like this provide admirers with opportunities and reasons to cherish and relive the great journey.