DEBUT PERFORMANCE

The frenetic pace of ultra-thin watchmaking has arrived at a new winner, for now - Richard Mille's RM UP-01 Ferrari.

- Wei-Yu Wang

The UP-01 takes a different road than its predecessors. The watches from Piaget and Bulgari had the main plate doubling as a caseback, and key components - gear train, balance wheel, barrel and the like - in plain view. Richard Mille's watch, however, is traditional in construction, sandwiching the 1.18mm movement between two case layers and obscuring most of it from view - in fact, only the balance wheel is visible. As a result, instead of a display of watchmaking finesse, the UP-01 has a brushed metal appearance that recalls automotive design. And then there is the Ferrari logo in one corner as the UP-01 is a product of Richard Mille's partnership with the storied Italian marque the first co-branded watch, in fact, and limited to 150 pieces.