Richard Mille RM-011 Flyback Chronograph Felipe Massa “Black Night”

The Belgian-British Formula One driver, currently competing for McLaren and racing under the British flag, is wearing the 100 pieces limited Richard Mille RM-011 Flyback Chronograph Felipe Massa “Black Night.”

The 40 mm NTPT Carbon case houses a transparent chronograph dial with red flange and black detailing. The piece is powered by an automatic Flyback chronograph with hours, minutes, and seconds, a 60-minute countdown timer, a 12-hour totalizer, an oversize date, and a month.

Overall Description

Once more, Richard Mille has created an amazing series that has captivated numerous timepiece enthusiasts. The Richard Mille RM-011 Flyback Chronograph watch was made for Brazilian Formula 1 racer Felipe Massa in a stunning black NTPT carbon. The 49.94 x 44.50mm tonneau-shaped casing has an innovative compound substance and an intriguing accent.

All other elements, except for the screws, obviously, are built of NTPT. The casing comprises 3 significant sections: the case back, the central portion, and the bezel. The Chrono pushers, the big, rubber-framed crown, along with the tiny pusher outlines all exhibit the distinct motifs of this stacked carbon fiber. Everything is painstakingly crafted, with straight corners and laser-cut hollow or relieved sections.

Even when examined closely with the macro lens of a camera, the tolerance levels that allow these sections to fit together are exquisite. This makes them even more remarkable when you consider that they were created from content initially developed with entirely distinct areas of application in mind. Power and lightweight were prioritized over such accuracy in finer details.

The hourly and minute markers on the dial face seem to be milled rather than printed, giving them a noticeably more upscale appearance compared to other skeletonized indexes. The hands are large and bulky; the cut-outs are crisp. Also, the alternate finish of glossy borders and textured middle portions makes them appear as opulent as one could imagine. Readability is still great, considering the skeletonized form and the absence of a conventional dial.

Additionally, the Richard Mille RM 011 Felipe Massa ‘Black Night’ NTPT has a sapphire crystal rather than the solid, coated brass dial, naturally with cut-outs for the bevel gears of the indexes. The sapphire crystal embedded in the bezel is arched and matches the casing’s curved form, whereas the sapphire dial within is flat. It appears and sounds extremely elegant, but layering a curvy chunk of crystal beyond a flat can occasionally look strange to sight. This makes it hard to understand how the clarity and dial layers interact.

A huge, leaping date window for the yearly calendar is located in the middle, just under the 12 o’clock point. This feature only needs to be adjusted at the close of each February. At 4 and 5 o’clock is a month indication. The operation of the two distinct Chrono sub-dials, which indicate the lapsed hours and minutes on the dial at 6 o’clock and a 60-minute timer on the dial at 9, is more intriguing. While somewhat kitschy, a fascinating decision contributes to the RM 011’s symmetrical form. It offers some ‘little’ additional usefulness above the traditional, divided hours-minutes subdials featured on many of these chronographs.

Price market: $350,000.00 USD

Photo: Lando Norris