Swiss luxury watchmaker Richard Mille (RM) and Europe’s Airbus have teamed up to create a high-flying and exclusive watch that draws inspiration from the aircraft manufacturer’s line of business jets. 

The new RM 50-02 ACJ Tourbillon Split Seconds Chronograph reflects the novel approaches adopted by both Richard Mille and Airbus Corporate Jets (ACJ) - a unit of Airbus which builds business jets for corporate and private clients – in their pursuit of excellence in innovation, design and manufacture. 

The price of the watch is just over a million dollars, according to reports.

Sylvain Mariat, Head of ACJ’s Creative Design Studio, drafted the designs for the RM 50-02 watch and worked closely with Julien Boillat and Salvador Arbona from RM’s R&D office. 

The new timepiece, just like the luxurious corporate jets built to the exacting and personal desires of clients by ACJ, makes use of advanced, open-worked design elements in the internal design of bridges and baseplate in grade 5 titanium, along with an extensive application of skeletonisation to every possible area, offering significant weight reduction. 

A number of parts within the movement have been coated with a distinctive, special aeronautical coating normally used to protect engine and chassis parts from corrosion and environmental conditions.

The end result is a visually breathtaking and dramatic view of the technical interior of the split seconds chronograph movement which also technical repercussions such as the elimination of the initial jump of the chronograph seconds hand during starting and stopping, with new split seconds components also in titanium additionally lowering the chronograph’s energy consumption through the reduction of internal friction.

The new RM50-02 tourbillon calibre also hosts a power reserve indicator (70 hours) between 11 and 12 o’clock, a torque indicator that supplies information about the tension of the mainspring allowing the optimisation of the chronometer function and a function indicator to show the watch’s state in each of the positions for winding, neutral and hand setting.

The distinctive and novel case shape in titanium-aluminum (TiAl) alloy with a secondary ceramic bezel was developed to mirror the outlines of an ACJ’s typical window shape with a clearly visible, multi-layered hull structure surround. 

The same alloy is used in the Airbus for its jet turbine blades, which must function safely under the convergence of high temperatures and high fields of pressure, thus requiring a very strong and highly stress resistant material. 

A premiere for the brand, this is also the first time the iconic Richard Mille screws around the outer edge of the bezel have been replaced by Torq set screws with their distinctively shaped head slots, and a jet engine inspired crown bearing an engraved, wave patterned Airbus logo.

Priced at $1.05 million, the RM 50-02 ACJ is a limited edition of 30 pieces, only available in RM boutiques.