World time watches are notoriously imperfect, often out of sync with the realities of daylight savings and partial-hour time zone offsets. Yet their appeal endures thanks to their mechanical ingenuity and jet-set romance. The Richard Mille RM 63-02 Worldtimer stands out in both respects, with a planetary differential that enables the wearer adjust time zones with a simple twist of the bezel.

Limited to just 100 pieces, the RM 63-02 offers commanding presence thanks to its 47 mm case in 18k rose gold and titanium, and its bold pink and burgundy colourway. While not a fit for every wrist or every budget, it’s nonetheless more wearable and accessible than expected.

Initial thoughts

From a strictly practical standpoint, the standard format for world time watches is inherently flawed, as about half the world observes daylight savings time for about half the year, and a fifth of the world’s population lives in time zones with partial-hour offsets. Flaws aside, they capture a certain jet set romance, and are frequently beautiful or clever. Richard Mille’s world timers are the latter, and maybe even the former too, depending on your disposition.

The RM 63-02 is clever in its operational and conceptual simplicity, though the actual implementation is quite sophisticated, enabling the user to adjust to local time with a simple turn of the bezel. This functionality is reminiscent of the IWC Timezoner, which was itself based on a patent acquired from Vogard. Richard Mille’s approach captures the best parts of this design, but does away with the cumbersome auxiliary buttons and levers required by other watches with bezel-adjustable world time functionality.

The CRMA4 calibre is proprietary to Richard Mille, and while it might look small in the massive case, it’s actually rather large at almost 34 mm in diameter. The bridges and plates are Titalyt-coated titanium, while the rotor is part rose gold. It has solid chronometric fundamentals, including a free-sprung balance with moderate inertia, a robust 4 Hz beat rate, and a fast-rotating barrel (also used by Greubel Forsey) to reduce mainspring adhesion.

Richard Mille is not known for value for money, but pricing for the RM 63-02 is somewhat less unreasonable than expected. When it comes to oversized highly technical watches, Richard Mille has few peers and enough fans to ensure the market will absorb the 100 pieces that are planned.

A new twist on the world timer

At 47 mm in diameter, the case is large even by Richard Mille standards, though at just under 14 mm it’s not overly thick for the brand. The mid-case is titanium while the bezel, case back, lug hood, crown and buttons are made of 18k rose gold. Like most Richard Milles, the case back is cambered to wrap around the wrist; it doesn’t wear small, but that a 47 mm watch is wearable at all is a feat in itself.

The case comprises well over 100 parts, though the line between case and movement becomes somewhat blurred as you move inwards. A planetary differential links the hour and minutes hands and the 24-hour ring to the rotating bezel, which is emblazoned with the names of 24 cities. Whichever city sits at 12 o’clock is the time displayed by the hands, and rotating the bezel counterclockwise effortlessly jumps the local hour forward in discrete steps.

Switching between time zones also advances the semi-instantaneous double-disk date display at 12 0’clock, which can also be adjusted independently using the button at 10 o’clock. While the rotating bezel seems like an obvious weak point for water ingress, Richard Mille claims to have tested it thoroughly – though the water resistance stands at just 30 m. This is likely aided by a locking mechanism integrated into the bezel, engaged by rotating the bezel clockwise.

The planetary differential.

Rather than pulling the crown to set the time, the button just below acts like the gear selector in a car, cycling through Neutral, Winding and Hand setting crown modes. Inconveniently, hand-setting mode also hacks the movement, so you can’t go from winding to neutral mode without stopping the seconds and disturbing the time. The crown also has a soft-touch red TPE ring for easy manipulation.

The sapphire crystal dial is reasonably legible, at least by Richard Mille standards, revealing the open-worked plate underneath. The dauphine hands are a highlight, sharp and thick, with straight graining on top and diamond-cut bevels, similar to what you’d find on a Grand Seiko. Both hands are filled with pink SuperLuminova to match the world time flange.

With so much of the movement visible through the transparent dial, the architecture becomes a core feature of the design. The stylised bridges are very presentable, with clean industrial finishing and clear sapphire jewels that support the contemporary aesthetic. As a brand, Richard Mille has never put a big emphasis on hand finishing, which is apparent under magnification. For example, it is possible to spot un-finished machine marks behind the function selector indicator. In the context of the RM 63-02, these shortcomings are fairly trivial; by and large the movement finishing is coherent with the philosophy of Richard Mille.

Key facts and price

Richard Mille RM 63-02 Automatic Woldtimer

Diameter: 47 mm
Height: 13.45 mm
Material: 18k rose gold and titanium
Crystal: Sapphire
Water resistance: 30 m

Movement: CRMA4
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, function selector, double disk date, world time.
Winding: Automatic
Frequency: 28,800 beats per hour (4 Hz)
Power reserve: 50 hours

Strap: White elastomer

Limited edition: 1oo pieces
Availability: At Richard Mille boutiques
Price: Approximately US$275,000 before taxes 

For more, visit richardmille.com