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Designed around a concept of high-performance and advanced technologies unique to Richard Mille, this brand’s watches offer radical styling with an emphasis on perfection and luxury. Selecting the tourbillion as his launch timepiece and taking it steps further—ensuring chronometer status and perfection of use—Richard Mille has unveiled a watch unlike any other. A veteran in the watch industry, Richard Mille began his career in 1974 as a commercial director for one of the world’s largest watch companies, where he remained for 20 years. In 1994, Mille joined the renowned house of Mauboussin and for four years acted as CEO in different capacities. In 1998, Mille resigned as president and CEO of Mauboussin’s watch division and opted to strike out on his own. Initially, Mille consulted with a number of companies about their watch development, including Audemars Piguet, Repossi and Baccarat. In fact, he created and developed the Baccarat watch, which was just launched in late 2002. At the same time, Mille was developing his own timepiece. Inspired by the perfection found in the automotive and aviation industries, and impressed with high-tech mechanical objects, Mille vowed to create a performance timepiece. His designs were incomparable in standards and incorporated a specially developed tourbillion escapement. The innovative technical choices applied to the design of this sophisticated watch required thousands of hours to develop. For more than a year, Mille designed and redesigned his watch until he had achieved perfection. For extensive periods, he subjected his timepieces to rigorous testing and fine-tuning to ensure precision and reliability. Finally, in 2001, Mille was ready to begin production of his watches. The first watch was the Tourbillion RM 001, launched in August 2001. It was followed that same year with the Tourbillion RM 002—an evolution of the first watch featuring a titanium plate and function indicator. In 2002, Mille unveiled the Tourbillion RM 003 with dual-time indicator. Indeed, Mille has a number of exciting new inventions in the works with plans for expansion. Richard Mille timepieces offer a very different conceptual approach in the luxury watch field. It is Mille’s goal to be to the watch industry what Ferrari and McLaren are to the automotive field—technologically advanced, innovative and performance oriented. Indeed, the image of Mille is anything but typical. The timepieces produced by this brand are the results of a very talented team of engineers working in an ultra-modern production workshop to serve as strong 21st century concept.
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