Drawn by Franklin Loufrani just over 50 years ago and first appearing in the pages of the French newspaper France Soir, the little yellow face of the Smiley has become a universal symbol that played a major role at the heart of pop culture across several generations.
An expression of positivity and optimism, the Smiley is celebrated by Richard Mille with the release of the RM 88 Automatic Tourbillon Smiley, an unconventional creation produced in a limited edition of 50 pieces.
The new in-house automatic tourbillon calibre powering the watch is highly technical and creative and took three years to develop.
Around the Smiley’s radiant face, an array of miniature sculptures – a blossoming flower, the warm rays of the sun, a pineapple, a blooming cactus, a pink flamingo and a brightly-coloured rainbow – form a surreal scene, a ballet of decorative elements demonstrating true mastery in the craftsmanship of the infinitely small.
Several technical and aesthetic challenges had to be overcome to create this composition. The dimensions and weight of the gold micro-sculptures created by the engraver Olivier Kuhn required particular care, as the assembled parts, each weighing less than a gram, must withstand every type of shock. It was then necessary to determine how to arrange the objects in the three-dimensional space around the central motif, the Smiley, not only to maximise their effect but also to facilitate their insertion by the watchmaker.
The solution was to equip the RM 88 with two baseplates: one technical, to support the movement, and the other auxiliary, to secure the ornamentation on the left-hand side of the dial. This second baseplate was subsequently mounted onto the movement and serves to present the objects on an inclined plane for added volumetric effect.
The second challenge faced was the conception of a movement that allowed enough free space to display the multiple protagonists of this scene. The new CRMT7 calibre, a skeletonised automatic tourbillon movement with hour, minute and function displays, was developed in house. Its bridges and micro-blasted baseplate are made of grade 5 titanium, to ensure rigidity and flatness.
The bridge of the micro-blasted, bevelled and drawn-out tourbillon is graced with a complex double PVD coating in black and gold, a finish that is replicated on the bridge at the back of the baseplate, accentuating its lightning bolt form.
With every minute, the figurative small-seconds hand alternates between rain and fine weather. It glides its way over the ARCAP cloud affixed to the tourbillon and then hides beneath a small cloud in microblasted and satin-finished white gold. It re-emerges once again at the foot of a rainbow designed in four different types of gold. The rainbow itself has an alternated microblasted and drawn-out finish and represents 25 hours of craftmanship.
The Smiley figure in micro-blasted and painted yellow gold, dominates the scene from atop the additional motion-work bridge in microblasted ARCAP with polished anglage and drawn edges. Featuring a larger echo of the rainbow motif, this bridge gleams with faint reflections thanks to hand-applied varnishes, contrasting with its anthracite-coloured rhodium plating.
The finishing of each element on display is outstanding. The cocktail glass is an assembly of four parts, all in gold. The umbrella, the olive (1.7 mm in height), the 0.4 mm-diameter grooved straw – all polished – and the glass itself, its base micro-blasted to create the chilled glass, weigh a total of just 0.4 g.
The gold flower above is mirror-polished, its petals brushed and rhodium-plated. The pink flamingo, 0.2 g of red gold, also undergoes multiple processes: its wings are polished and its feathers traced with the tip of a Dégussit grinding stone; its eye is made using the smallest beading tool in existence; its pedestal is micro-blasted and the part that depicts the grass and water is polished. The component is given a metallic pink PVD coating before the beak is painted black using a brush.
The quest for perfection is demonstrated by the green PVD-coated leaves, the microblasted and polished surface of the pineapple, the microblasted spines of the cactus in yellow gold, polished one by one to remove the PVD coating, and the sun, in microblasted gold with polished rays.
In keeping with watchmaking tradition, all finishing operations on the RM 88 Smiley are carried out by hand.
The 48.15 mm x 39.74 mm x 13.30 case is made of white ATZ ceramic – well known for its resistance to scratches, shocks and abrasion, as well as for its eternal whiteness – while red gold was employed for the caseband. The crown bears the Smiley sculpted in yellow gold.
Powering hours, minutes and function indicator, the skeletonised automatic winding tourbillon Calibre CRMT7 beats at the frequency of 4 Hz (28,800 vibrations per hour) with a power reserve of around 50 hours (± 10%).
The back of the RM 88 Automatic Tourbillon Smiley reveals the grade 5 titanium baseplate and bridges, a choice of material that guarantees corrosion-resistance and remarkable rigidity for excellent functioning of the gear-train.
The rear bridge, in the form of a lightning bolt, receives a double PVD coating, like the tourbillon bridge. The involuted-profile gears generate a uniform pressure angle of 20°. These gear-trains ensure excellent torque transmission and thus optimal efficiency of energy transfers between the rapid-rotation barrel and the tourbillon’s variable-inertia balance-wheel.
The 3N yellow gold rotor, equipped with a OneWay winding system and ceramic ball bearings, is hand decorated including the bevelling, circular-graining and microblasting. In its centre, the heart of the weight reveals a black PVD coating.
The new Richard Mille RM 88 Automatic Tourbillon Smiley has a price of CHF 1,100,000 excluding local sales taxes. richardmille.com
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