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Richard Mille has a watch to match your McLaren Speedtail

The RM 40-01 is shaped like the teardrop hypercar

Ideally, each Speedtail owner is allocated one RM 40-01 watch. PHOTO FROM MCLAREN

The Speedtail is a very special car for McLaren. The futuristic-looking and aerodynamically efficient teardrop body, combined with a 1,070hp hybrid powertrain, allows the hypercar to top out at 403km/h—making it the fastest McLaren road car ever built to this day. And there are only 106 examples being built, so it is also extremely exclusive.

Now, Richard Mille and McLaren are two brands that have been tightly knit together for the past few years. To commemorate the fifth year of their partnership, the two companies have revealed the RM 40-01 Automatic Tourbillon McLaren Speedtail. As the name suggests, both the watch and the speed machine have quite a lot in common.

The case has a similar profile to the Speedtail's body. PHOTOS FROM RICHARD MILLE

Like the Speedtail, the RM 40-01 is guaranteed to grab people’s attention. As for how it looks, well, let’s just say that it’s an acquired taste. The case is shaped like a teardrop (like the car)—starting out wide at the 12-o’clock area and tapering down toward the six-o’clock region. It took Richard Mille 18 months and five different prototypes just to get the profile right.

The case is made from 69 individual parts—utilizing a titanium bezel and caseback, a “triple-contoured” crystal that fits the tapering of the case, and several smaller details that take cues from the Speedtail. These include pushers that resemble the air intakes and the exhaust outlets on the car, and a watch face that “evokes the bonnet openings.” Rounding out the entire package is an asymmetrical band made from Richard Mille’s Carbon TPT material, with a single McLaren Orange stripe found at the six-o’clock zone.

The large date display and the function selector are both firsts for Richard Mille. PHOTOS FROM RICHARD MILLE

The in-house CRMT4 movement is the “engine” of the Speedtail timepiece. It introduces many firsts for Richard Mille like a power reserve indicator, and an oversize date display and function selector. There are also three power reserve systems, and several other key components that are made from grade-five titanium. Lastly, you’ll find several McLaren logos adorning various parts of the movement.

Pricing hasn’t been announced, but we bet it won’t be cheap knowing how some Richard Mille watches cost as much as some supercars. Like the hypercar from Woking, the RM 40-01 is limited to 106 pieces, so that every McLaren Speedtail owner will be able to buy one.



Sam Surla

Sam is the youngest member of our editorial team. He specializes in photography and videography, but he also happens to like writing about cars a lot.



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