Richard Mille's New McLaren Watch Has a ‘Jump Start’ Button

Such is the world of luxury products, that customers for McLaren Automotive’s newly announced $2.6 million W1 hypercar can now order a watch to match.

The fourth watch produced as a result of the long-term partnership between McLaren and luxury watchmaker Richard Mille, the RM 65-01 “McLaren W1 Edition” was announced this week in a press conference at the carmaker’s Woking headquarters.

Billed as something approaching a hypercar for the wrist, the watch, which will cost 320,000 Swiss francs plus taxes ($373,300) is a tribute to the design language of the car, which was revealed to the world last Sunday. With a split-second chronograph movement and a couple of other tricks up its sleeve, it houses what Richard Mille says is the most complicated automatic movement it has ever produced.

The movement, which comprises 480 components, beats at a frequency of 5 Hz, enabling measurement of intervals to the nearest tenth of a second. The split-seconds function allows the wearer to time two concurrent events, so you’ll know with pinpoint accuracy just how much faster you are than just about every other car on the road (or racetrack.) The pushers at 2, 4, and 10 o’clock, shaped to mimic the W1’s exhausts, control the chronograph, with their roles spelled out in McLaren’s “papaya orange” and a high-contrast shade of baby blue, but it’s the fourth pusher in pure orange that will catch your eye.

Start Me Up

This controls a very different function, unique to the RM 65 line. You could call it a “jump start” button—something hopefully the W1 will never require. It’s an instant winding mechanism, designed so that in the rare occurrence that the watch runs out of power, you can fire it up again with a few presses of your thumb.

It activates a rack-and-pinion mechanism that winds the mainspring without taking the watch off your wrist. Richard Mille says that 125 pushes would fully wind the watch, but it’s intended to provide a quick boost rather than be a substitute for the automatic winding system—which itself is highly complex, with a variable rotor that can be adjusted to suit the lifestyle of the wearer, according to the brand. Essentially, if you’re an active sort it’ll be set up to deliver less energy per rotation, and vice versa if you’re more sedentary.

The other standout element of the watch is a deceptively simple one. Creative director Cecile Guenat explained that the case shape is intended to resemble the pinched-waist lines of the W1 as seen from above; and to emphasize the muscular outline of the carbon-fiber bezel, Richard Mille has incorporated a wafer-thin layer of polished titanium that glints and shimmers from all angles.

Carbon Constructions

It might sound strange given that the watch has such a striking open-worked dial, an action-ready color scheme, and Richard Mille’s signature NTPT carbon case construction, but in real life it is the most eye-catching feature.

Made from a 0.5-mm thick layer of titanium—so thin, the watchmakers explained, that it’s almost impossible to hold still while it’s being machined—it is sandwiched together with a carbon inlay, itself the most advanced form of the polymer Richard Mille has yet employed.

Constructed from 30-micron-thick layers of carbon that are stacked at a 45-degree angle, enriched with a binding resin and machined as a solid material, it is said to be significantly more durable than other carbon-fiber cases.

It is a natural bedfellow for any McLaren, given the carmaker’s consistent use of carbon-fiber chassis tubs ever since it debuted the 12C in 2009. The W1 is no different in that regard. McLaren has worked hard to keep as much weight off as possible while making a car that’s usable on both road and track. The 1,399-kilogram car has a power-to-weight ratio superior to that of the Aston Martin Valkyrie and Mercedes-AMG AMG One.

This is thanks to a colossal power output of 1,275 ps (1,258 horsepower), coming from a new 928-ps twin-turbo V8 engine developed by Ricardo, and an electric motor which adds a further 347 ps. McLaren claims it will be the fastest-accelerating car it has ever made, capable of reaching 200 kph from a standing start in 5.8 seconds, and 300 kph in 12.7 seconds.

Such figures will only be available in “Race mode,” which deploys the car’s real party piece: its aerodynamic setup. Developed to make use of a phenomenon called “ground effect,” whereby low-pressure air traveling underneath the car sucks it closer to the tarmac, the W1 boasts an active front wing (a first for the brand), but more notably, an enormous rear spoiler, which extends 30 centimeters beyond the rear of the car to help stick it down to the track, acting as an extension of the dramatic (and Formula 1-inspired) rear diffuser.

McLaren says 399 examples of the W1 will be made, each with a starting price of $2.6 million—which will rise once owners get lured in by the personalization options on offer.

Apparently every single one is already spoken for, and in an attempt to encourage owners to get out and use them rather than wait for the kind of long-term appreciation that has sent McLaren F1 values north of £20 million, the company is offering a comprehensive four-year warranty.

As for the super-exclusive watch, Richard Mille will allow every W1 customer the chance to buy an RM 65-01, each of which will be engraved with a serial number to match that of the car. However, the total number of watches produced will be 500.

Richard Mille says it decided to make more following customer feedback on its previous McLaren edition, which was produced to mark the launch of the Speedtail in 2018 and capped at the same volume as the car—just 106 pieces. With deliveries of the W1 set to start in 2026, Richard Mille is producing watches numbered 400 to 500 first. So if you’ve just missed out on that phone call from Woking, maybe there’s still a chance.