Collector Watches
October 13, 2026
Richard Mille RM 88 Smiley: Fifty Years of Joy, Sculpted in Gold
In 1972 a yellow circle with two oval eyes and a wide smile appeared in the French daily France Soir. Fifty years later, in the autumn of 2022, Richard Mille gave that symbol a tonneau case, a new in-house tourbillon calibre and a cast of gold micro-sculptures. The RM 88 Automatic Tourbillon Smiley, limited to 50 pieces, is serious watchmaking dressed for a holiday.
The Smiley was drawn by Franklin Loufrani and went on to become a universal shorthand for happiness. Richard Mille presented the collaboration as “an expression of our innate desire to connect with others”, and the watch takes that idea at its word. It is designed to be read at a glance, by anyone, and to raise a smile before it tells the time.
The Story
Richard Mille has long allowed itself a sense of humour. The Bonbon collection turned confectionery into watch design, and Bubba Watson’s pink RM 38 showed that a technical sports watch could also be playful. The RM 88 belongs to that tradition, but it arrives with an unusually serious foundation.
The watch was presented at the end of September 2022, in the Smiley’s fiftieth year, as an edition of 50 pieces. Its movement, calibre CRMT7, took three years to develop, which makes clear that this was never conceived as a simple novelty. The joke is on the surface; the engineering underneath is new.
The RM 88 proves that joy, done properly, can take years of engineering.
The Dial
Strictly speaking, there is no dial. The scene is built directly onto the skeletonised movement: a holiday landscape of clouds, sunshine and beach objects, with the Smiley at its heart. The Smiley itself is yellow gold, microblasted and painted, set over a hand-painted rainbow on a bridge with anthracite rhodium plating and hand-applied varnishes.
The surrounding gold micro-sculptures were made by Olivier Kuhn, each weighing less than a gram. They begin as 3D prints in resin, are cast in plaster and are then reproduced in gold. The details reward close inspection: a cocktail glass assembled from four gold parts, umbrella, olive, straw and glass, weighing 0.4 g in total; a 0.2 g red gold flamingo with polished wings, a tiny beaded eye and a hand-painted black beak; a cactus whose spines are polished one by one to remove their PVD coating; a microblasted and polished pineapple; a mirror-polished flower with rhodium-plated petals; and a sun with polished rays.
The cloud and rainbow element alone takes around 25 hours per piece. Look closely and the tourbillon appears among the clouds, so that the most complex part of the movement becomes part of the weather.
In Context
Calibre CRMT7 is a skeletonised automatic tourbillon showing hours, minutes and a function indicator. Its baseplate and bridges are grade 5 titanium, and it beats at 4 Hz with a power reserve of around 50 hours. Winding is handled by a 3N yellow gold rotor on ceramic ball bearings, through the brand’s OneWay winding system, and a fast-rotating barrel completes a turn every five hours rather than seven and a half.
The case measures 39.74 by 48.15 mm and 13.30 mm thick, pairing a bezel and caseback in white ATZ ceramic with a caseband in 18k 5N red gold. It is water resistant to 50 metres and worn on a yellow strap. White ceramic and red gold frame the colours of the scene cleanly, much as a gallery wall frames a painting.
Within Richard Mille’s catalogue, the RM 88 sits among the brand’s most narrative pieces. What sets it apart is the combination: a newly developed in-house tourbillon calibre, a run of only 50 pieces and a level of sculptural hand-finishing that turns the movement into a stage.
The Splendore Perspective
We are dial specialists, and the RM 88 is a reminder that a dial can be an entire landscape. It is a watch that delivers lightness of spirit without any lightness of craft, and that balance is why we chose to offer it through Splendore Pieces.
Splendore Pieces offers it exactly as made by its maker; Splendore Unique is independent of Richard Mille. Our team can answer any questions about this piece or arrange a private viewing in London by appointment.
Specifications
| Reference | RM 88 Automatic Tourbillon Smiley |
|---|---|
| Year | 2022 |
| Case | White ATZ ceramic bezel and caseback, 18k 5N red gold caseband |
| Dimensions | 39.74 x 48.15 mm |
| Thickness | 13.30 mm |
| Movement | In-house calibre CRMT7, skeletonised automatic tourbillon; hours, minutes, function indicator; 3N yellow gold rotor |
| Power reserve | Approximately 50 hours |
| Water resistance | 50 m |
| Dial | Skeletonised, with hand-finished gold micro-sculptures: Smiley, rainbow, flamingo, cactus, pineapple, cocktail glass, flower and sun |
| Strap | Yellow strap |
| Limited edition | 50 pieces |
Sources
- Richard Mille: RM 88 Automatic Tourbillon Smiley
- Time+Tide: The Richard Mille RM 88 Smiley is seriously funny and the feel-good watch of the year
- Swisswatches Magazine: Richard Mille RM 88 Automatic Tourbillon Smiley, The Symbolism of the Smiley
- Haute Time: Richard Mille Redefines The Universal Symbol Of Happiness With The RM 88 Automatic Tourbillon Smiley
Richard Mille RM88 Smiley Tourbillon
Offered by Splendore Pieces, exactly as made by its maker, and available to acquire now. Private viewings in London by appointment.
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