Pairing your wristwatch to your car has been a long tradition for collectors as the two interests often go hand in hand. However, at the very top end of both industries you find wristwatch and cars that have been designed as a pair. The most extreme example of which is probably the Rolls-Royce Boat Tail with custom Bovet but more recently are also collaborations such as the Jacob & Co. Bugatti Tourbillon and the Bugatti Tourbillon hyper car. Now, there’s this: the McLaren W1 hyper car and matching Richard Mille RM 65-01 McLaren W1.
Starting with an overview of the car, it’s a mighty beast. It’s powered by a twin-turbo V8 with hybrid drivetrain that outputs 1,258 bhp. The brakes, suspension and 8-speed transmission are all race quality, which combined with the carbon fibre chassis helps to make the W1 the fastest accelerating road-legal car McLaren have ever produced. Its styling is sleek and modern with the familiar orange and black bodywork of McLaren giving it a brooding, serious countenance.
Moving to the Richard Mille RM 65-01 McLaren W1, the aesthetic influence of the car is immediately evident. It measures 43.84mm x 49.94mm x 16.19mm in the classic Richard Mille tonneau shape, produced in high tech Carbon TPT with titanium accents. The use of carbon clearly reflects the materials used in the W1 car, on top of which the indented shape of the watch’s bezel is influenced by the compact, muscular shape of the car’s gullwing doors.
McLaren’s signature colours are represented across the watch’s skeletonised dial. The edge of the peripheral tachymeter, minute markers, split-seconds hand and chronograph 12-hour and 30-minute counters are a matching shade of orange. Meanwhile the chronograph’s second split-seconds hand, seconds scale and function selector are light blue. Contrasting with both of those colours, the hours, minutes and running seconds are bright yellow.
You may have noticed from the above complications that the RM 65-01 McLaren W1 is a split-seconds chronograph. What this means is that there are two central chronograph hands that are superimposed on top of each other. When you press the start pusher, both hands will begin moving simultaneously at the same speed. You can then stop the two hands independently allowing you to time two separate events that are occurring together. For example you could time individual laps within a longer race or you could time two competitors in a single race – useful for F1 when each team has two cars.
The movement controlling all this is the RMAC4, a hi-beat movement with a 5 Hz frequency and 60-hour power reserve. Having such a high frequency allows for a greater degree of accuracy for the split-seconds chronograph which is accurate down to 1/10th of a second. The power reserve can also be topped up at a moment’s notice courtesy of a ‘rapid winding’ mode which is enabled with an orange quartz TPT pusher. You can view the movement through the skeletonised portions of the display and the sapphire exhibition caseback.
I have previously expressed that I prefer Richard Mille’s more understated designs, especially those in titanium, but if I was hard pressed to choose a carbon model, it would probably be this. I like how it builds on the standard RM 65-01 Split-Seconds by changing the shape of the dial and introducing McLaren’s signature colours. It feels like a fitting tribute to the brand and the W1. I can also imagine it strapped to Lando Norris’ wrist over a GP weekend. It’s priced at CHF 320,000 in a limited edition of 500 pieces.
Price and Specs:
More details at Richard Mille.
