This million-dollar timepiece is one to wear during your next outdoor adventure
“Back there I could fly a gunship, I could drive a tank, I was in charge of million-dollar equipment, back here I can’t even hold a job parking cars!” A frustrated Rambo roared in 1982 before he threw a machine gun at the wall.
Richard Mille X Sylvester Stallone
It’s no secret that the high-tech, avant-garde watch brand is obsessed with building alliance with society’s most competitive trailblazers. Take, for example, the recent collaboration with McLaren that saw a quarter-million-dollar RM 11-03 McLaren Automatic Flyback Chronograph, decked in a snazzy Volcano Orange hue.
Or the seven-figure tribute piece unveiled at this year’s SIHH 2018, the RM 53-01 Tourbillon Pablo Mac Donough, which pays homage to Argentinian polo player, Pablo Mac Donough.
The RM 25-01 Adventure Tourbillon (US$983,000, S$1,3 million) is the fruit of a longstanding friendship between the eponymous watchmaker and the star of Rambo, which may explain its monumental look; Stallone has always been a fan of imposing wristwatches, confirmed by the red-strapped, round-bezeled RM 032 diving watch that he wore throughout The Expendables 3.
A survivalist’s watch
The RM 25-01 also adopts a round case — an indestructible composite of titanium and Carbon TPT — perfect for Stallone’s request for a mountable compass. And not just any compass, either. The grade 5 titanium, antimagnetic, anti-reflective treated sapphire crystal compass will make any soldier recce proud. It can even be detached and affixed to a Carbon TPT plate (provided with purchase), becoming useful on a line map.
The compass bezel can be detached and replaced with another navigation tool, the bidirectional bezel. Point the hour hand at the sun, rotate the bezel and local time will be indicated on its 24-hour scale. A hermetic compartment at two o’clock is also able to hold water purification tablets, vitamins and other pills essential for survival.
The survivalist watch has also halved its energy consumption by combining a tourbillon complication with the complexity of a new chronograph movement, resulting in a 70-hour power reserve.
And, of course, the strap sports the camouflage motif, awaiting to wrap only 20 wrists — probably those, like Rambo, who can’t (or in this case, won’t) hold a job such as parking cars.
