Richard Mille Teams Up With F1 Lotus Driver Romain Grosjean

Richard Mille has teamed up with one of Formula One’s most famous drivers. This week the luxury watchmaker announced a partnership with Romain Grosjean, who joined the Lotus F1 Team in 2012 after moving up from the GP2 and F3 Euroseries.

Grosjean, who took over the position as the official Lotus driver from Kimi Räikkönen (who moved to Ferrari this year), follows in the footsteps of Felipe Massa and Sébastien Loeb to become one of Richard Mille’s test drivers.

The announcement from Richard Mille was timed to coincide with the first Formula 1 testing sessions of the new E22 Lotus. Grosjean will use the testing sessions and the upcoming 2014 Grand Prix season to put the new Automatic Flyback Chronograph RM 011 Lotus F1 Team-Romain Grosjean in carbon NTPT® through its paces.

As its name indicates, the case of this timepiece is in NTPT® carbon, a material exclusive to Richard Mille consisting of over 600 layers of carbon fibers. This corrosion-proof and exceptionally rigid, impact-resistant material will be subjected to incredible speeds, vibration and weather as the F1 driver wears the watch outside his overalls on the track.

The 50mm x 40mm (at its widest point) x 16.15mm (at its thickest point) black NTPT® carbon case and the gold pushpieces, crown and numerals represent the colors of Lotus’ historic black and gold livery. The pushpiece between 1 and 2 o’clock starts and stops the chronograph function, while the pushpiece between 4 and 5 o’clock resets the flyback function.

The openworked dial features hours and minutes, as well as a central chronograph hand for the tachymeter scale, an oversize date display under 12 o’clock, a 60-minute countdown timer at 3 o’clock, a month display between 4 and 5 o’clock, a 12-hour totalizer at 6 o’clock and small seconds at 9 o’clock. There is also a Lotus F1 Team logo decal under 12 o’clock, while RM 011 R. Grosjean is indicated in gold between 7 and 8 o’clock.

While the RM 011 in NTPT® was created exclusively for Grosjean, fans of Team Lotus will be able to purchase the equally-new RM 50-01 Tourbillon Chronograph G-Sensor Lotus F1 Team Romain Grosjean.

Photos courtesy Richard Mille.