She's Complicated

Watchmaking innovator Richard Mille delivers yet another women’s timepiece of remarkable beauty and complexity. Christian Barker discovers the masterpiece that is the RM 71-01 Automatic Tourbillon Talisman

It’s misogynist and condescending, the idea that women have no interest in haute horology. “The fairer sex will happily pass over mechanical watches for the convenience of a fuss-free quartz movement,” or so the unreconstructed, uninformed male might believe. Not true. Since the dawn of modern watchmaking, women have actually been among the most passionate consumers of intricate mechanical timepieces.

Fun fact: A little company called Patek Philippe got its first real boost when Britain’s Queen Victoria purchased a couple of their exquisitely crafted watches in 1851, thrusting the nascent brand into the limelight. Less than two decades later, the same house was responsible for creating the world’s first wristwatch when they set a minuscule timepiece into a gold bangle at the behest of a horology-hungry Hungarian countess.