Intended less as a device to aim at those to whom you wish to give the ‘the eye’ and more as a talisman against bad luck, Richard Mille’s RM26-02 ‘Evil Eye’ was launched a couple of months ago, and we had the opportunity to spend a little bit of time with this striking replica watch.
The 48.15mm x 40.10mm x 13.10mm case has a TZP black ceramic bezel and caseback and is not just very light, but also very scratch-resistant. TZP black ceramic contains 95% ytria-stabilised zirconia (a ceramic in which the crystal structure of zirconium dioxide is made stable at room temperature by an addition of yttrium oxide) and makes for an interesting case texture, with an almost ‘grained’ look. The middle band of the Evil Eye tripartite case is 5N red gold, the replica watch has the Mille torque limiting crown to prevent over-winding, and water resistance is 50m. The red gold/ black theme is presumably to do with fire and darkness. It’s al about dial drama with this luxury replica watch.
The eye is red gold with grand feu enamel and lacquer by Olivier Vaucher. The flames and eye have been hand-carved using small custom-made chisels after the enamel firing process is completed.
Inside is the manual-wind Calibre RM26-2 with a power reserve of approximately fifty hours. The plate and bridges are PVD-coated Grade 5 Titanium and the tourbillon 3 Hz. To a large degree the tourbillon almost seems surplus to requirements on a replica watch with such a prominent design feature
This being a Mille replica watch there is, of course, skeletonisation; in this instance of the baseplate and visible through the open case back.
The RM 26-02 is produced in a limited edition of 25 timepieces which are available exclusively from Richard Mille boutiques. The price is USD575,000.
[Horologium attended Replica Watches & Wonders 2015 by invitation of Richemont Australia]