Which is why 2006 saw Hublot become the first luxury watch brand to establish global partnerships within the game, ultimately signing as the official timekeeper of the FIFA world cup in 2010.
Hublot remains the sport’s key watch partner 20 years later – but even its most extravagant soccer-themed watches pale into technical insignificance compared with Richard Mille’s recently-launched RM41-01, a flyback chronograph with tourbillon that’s designed to time both halves of a match and to keep track of the score.
That said, such soccer watches have been seen before. Makers including Heuer, Breitling and Omega offered chronographs with similar capabilities as far back 1968 – but to bracket those with Richard Mille’s effort is akin to comparing a horse and cart with a Formula 1 car.
The Richard Mille RM41-01 Tourbillon Soccer: timing the beautiful game
It’s said to have taken five years to develop the RM41-01’s functionality, which incorporates two complications entirely new to Richard Mille: a ‘match phase’ indicator and a mechanical goal counter.
The calibre, which was developed in collaboration with the R and D workshops of Audemars Piguet Le Locle, is hewn from lightweight titanium and interprets the match time indicator as a rotating cylinder visible at the nine o’clock position.
Each re-set of the flyback mechanism advances the cylinder from ‘first half’ to second half’, while periods of injury time and extra time can be tracked by marked spaces on the rehaut on opposite sides of the dial.
The score, meanwhile, can be tallied using independent push pieces at the two and four o’clock positions that operate linear counters placed diagonally opposite one another at the top left (for the home team) and bottom right (away team).
Each press of one or other of the push pieces advances a coloured pointer along a metallic rail, using a dedicated gear train separate from the timekeeping mechanism to record up to nine goals before automatically re-setting to the zero position.
In typical Richard Mille style, the dial is skeletonised and the case back is transparent to allow the technical mastery within to be fully appreciated – and, while the brand’s other flyback tourbillon watches impress with their complexity, the additional soccer functions incorporated into the 650 components of the RM41-01’s patented, double column wheel movement make for a truly mind-boggling sight.
The micro-blasted and satin flanges and the mechanical marvel they support are contained in a 105-part case offered in two versions, the first being Red Carmin ‘Basalt TPT®’, a new composite developed from the volcanic rock that gives it its distinctive hue and wood-like grain.
There will be 30 Basalt TPT® watches available, as well as 30 more with cases made from dark blue Quartz TPT® – with both materials being chemical, corrosion and UV resistant and capable of remaining stable in extreme degrees of heat and cold.
Depending on the model, the watches will have micro-blasted titanium push pieces fitted with Basalt TPT® or carbon inserts and guards made from 5n gold.
Measuring almost 50mm in length, more than 43mm wide and 16mm thick, there’s little chance of seeing an RM41-01 in action on the pitch in the way that Rafael Nadal famously wore his Richard Mille watches on the tennis court.
And with a price tag of CHF 1.45 million plus tax, only major league players from any walk of life need apply….
