News: Richard Mille RM 68-01 Tourbillon Cyril Kongo
Since being founded in 2001 (you can read more about the brand's history here), Richard Mille has partnered with a wide variety of celebrities from Hollywood to the world of sport in its pursuit of crafting the most outstanding timepieces. For its latest special edition, the brand has collaborated with groundbreaking artist, Cyril Kongo, to create an eye-catchingly modern watch, limited to just 30 pieces. With a background in graffiti and street art, Kongo—after a chance meeting with brand founder Richard Mille—has been given a new canvas to work with, in the form of haute horlogerie.
The watchmaker’s conceptual design aesthetic goes hand-in-hand with the artist’s brightly coloured, highly contemporary art. For each individual piece, Kongo used a collection of micro spray painting tools to create the unique, one-of-a-kind designs. It took the artist over a year of experimentation, as well as the development of a special technique and set of tools, to make it possible to translate his art onto a watch just two inches square.
The skeletonisation of the movement works in perfect synchronicity with the graffiti-styled hand-painting. The watch is encased by Richard Mille’s signature tonneau-shaped case in black ceramic, punctuated by a set of grade five titanium spline screws. The beautiful in-house calibre RM68-01 beats at 21,600vph, and provides a power reserve of 42 hours.
