Richard Mille debuts Kongo’s art on RM 68-01 Tourbillon
The RM68-01, Richard Mille’s latest offering, is the canvas that combines contemporary art and haute horlogerie in an unprecedented manner
The RM 68-01 Tourbillon is more than a watch; it also serves as a canvas for the inspiration and creativity of street artist Cyril Kongo. Never before has a work of art taken shape on the bridges and baseplate of a watch, becoming a truly integral part of the timepiece. Richard Mille and Kongo have succeeded in taking an art essentially associated with large-scale urban murals and transplanting it to the horological world of micromechanics and precision, thereby making a leap from city walls to the bridges, baseplates and sapphire dials of watchmaking.
It took more than a year to develop the painting technique used by Kongo. A special airbrush was developed to allow the artist to spray his colours with the utmost delicacy, one droplet at a time. To avoid jeopardising the calibre’s equilibrium, essential to its functioning, the weight of the paint had to be strictly determined beforehand. This significant challenge involving all the teams collaborating on the RM 68-01 project resulted in the creation of a unique palette of brightly coloured indelible paints that adhere perfectly to the titanium components and can endure assembly and dismantling.
Development of special tools made it possible for Kongo to draw lines barely visible to the naked eye and impossible to create directly by hand, even if certain motifs were sketched using pens with especially fine nibs. Regardless of the technique, every component of each watch was painted in the hues of the man known as Mr. Colourful.
The RM 68-01 demanded that Kongo rethink his approach to graffiti in order to adapt his artistic vocabulary for the extremely limited surface of a calibre. His real triumph lies in his ability that makes it possible to contemplate his work from every aspect of the piece.
The back of the watch shows the central form of the tourbillon movement’s baseplate radiating outwards like a splash of paint physically thrown against a wall, while from the front, the different movement bridges can be seen arcing in different directions like the wild brushstrokes found in street art murals.
Housed in a case of NTPT Carbon caseband that has black ceramic bezels, the asymmetric case design tapers in two directions – in thickness from 9 to 3 o’clock and in height between 12 and 6 o’clock.
Known internationally under the pseudonym Cyril Kongo, the graffiti artist Cyril Phan was born in 1969 and presently resides in Paris. A self-made man and artist, his mastery of the art and his twenty plus years of membership in the MAC CREW collective have established him as one of the legendary, major representatives of the world’s graffiti scene. Inspired by frescos and wall paintings, he has, in essence, transformed graffiti as a genre.
The RM 68-01 Tourbillon is limited to 30 pieces worldwide.
