Richard Mille Announces RM 56 Sapphire, solid Sapphire Crystal Watch for £1.2 million.

Richard Mille have announced at SIHH 2012 the mind blowing RM56 Felipe massa SAPPHIRE (sic), the name including the Capitalised designation heavily hints at what make this watch out of the ordinary, a solid Sapphire crystal case, that is correct, a SOLID sapphire crystal, look now we've started doing it.

Gone are the days where simply a solid Platinum or Tantalum watch case will suffice, with this new release Richard Mille have spectacularly raised the bar on what serious luxury means.  Granted, ultra high end MB&F hm-2 SV pioneered a solid crystal case, however, that watch had a metal back plate, this baby from Messuier Mille does not, 100% transparent Sapphire Crystal front to back, there is not a cog, a line, a hair prring which is not visible here.

The painstaking process which this watch took to be born, required 1,000 hours to machine the case, 430 hours of grinding, and 350 to finally finish the piece for sale.  And as is always the case with Richard Mille, an outstanding piece of horological mastery is locked within the crystal clear depths, including chronograph, tourbillon, calendar and split seconds, all controlled from pushers also made from solid sapphire crystal.

Unique is not a word which is under-used in the modern day, indeed superlatives are all too common place, however, 5 one off limited edition wristwatches each hand crafted from a piece of solid sapphire crystal we feel does deserve the moniker "unique". We await with baited breath the release of the next wristwatch to trump this in the luxury stakes, it shall have to be pretty impressive, like made from solid Rubies or something (gotta leave time for later someone can release a solid diamond wristwatch).