Determined to create models destined to be tested in real life and above all extreme conditions, Richard Mille has already gained extensive media coverage by strapping his watches to the wrists of Felipe Massa and Raphael Nadal. And as if these "laboratory tests" were not gruelling enough, this year Richard Mille is introducing the RM 038 "Bubba Watson", dedicated to the rising star on the international golf scene.

This choice of model overturns a number of convictions held by yours truly. I have in my time seen many sports or complicated watches being returned for repairs after being worn in the exercise of such sports. And it was always a woeful sight. After lengthy and laborious reconditioning work, when it was time to return the watches to their owners, I always admonished them in these terms: "Please don't play golf (or tennis) with a wristwatch" – while refraining from expressing my real thoughts, which were basically that "you might as well try to drive through a concrete wall in a speeding Formula 1 car".

The hit parade of mechanical watchmaker's greatest enemies features gravity and… impacts. The violence of the impact perceived on a golfer's wrist when hitting the ball is generally enough to literally explode the watch of a player who has inadvertently forgotten to remove it.

In order to minimise the effect of such shocks, there are two major factors one may attempt to influence. The first is the movement's structural rigidity, for obvious reasons; and the second is its weight. By keeping the latter to a minimum, one reduces inertia, and thus the influence of the shocks themselves. But such actions still need to be substantial enough to make a significant improvement. As for gravity, it can play havoc during movement timing or rating operations when the watch is in a vertical position. I am not aware of the gravity measurements prevailing on a golfer's wrists, but I can well imagine such calculations would have been a headache for Newton or Einstein. One thing one can however be certain of is that the succession of various vertical positions a watch moves through in the course of a swing goes far beyond those possible in conventional use. The solution to this thorny issue is well known to watchmakers: it's called the tourbillon. The problem being that this finely tuned mechanism is reputed to be relatively vulnerable.

The RM 038 is of course regulated by a tourbillon… In order to take up such a crazy challenge, Richard Mille has developed a movement featuring a structured designed to ensure maximum rigidity as well as tasteful aesthetic appeal. His experience in developing sports cars doubtless proved useful despite the fact that the constraints are different and that technologies have significantly evolved since then. The choice of materials is another key factor in this success story: grade 5 titanium for the bridges and mainplate, and magnesium-aluminium for the exterior. These two alloys are particularly appreciated in the aeronautical field for their sturdiness, their rigidity and their lightness. Since this is not a testing bench article, space will unfortunately not permit us to elaborate on the innovative features involved in the construction of the movement itself, even though there are certainly plenty.

I can already hear a chorus of protest among those who prefer to write all of this off as a mere publicity stunt. While such models naturally attract legitimate attention, I would respond to any similar criticism by saying that such trials and tests in extreme conditions serve to enrich our daily life in terms of both comfort and safety (one need only think of the space race, and Formula 1 motor racing…), and that I sincerely thank Richard Mille for taking on this role in the watch industry and for shaking up certain horological certainties that I had regarded as immutable.