Specifically, they take their visual cues from the Memphis Group, the 1980s postmodern design and architecture movement that helped to define the look of that era. Taking its inspiration in turn from the clean lines of the early 20th century Bauhaus school allied to the possibilities of modern fabrication, the movement championed a bold, iconoclastic approach, upending received wisdom and exploring fresh frontiers in terms of shapes, materials and patterns. Perhaps its most famous creation, for example – the Carlton, by the movement’s founder Ettore Sottsass – is a symmetrical pyramid of colours and shapes that merges the functions of room divider, bookcase and dresser.

The bold approach, with its sophisticated, unconventional understanding of how form and function can interact, makes the group an ideal fit with Richard Mille. It finds its way onto the PVD-treated red gold dials of the three renditions of the RM 07-01 Coloured Ceramics in a series of offbeat, immediately striking patterns, which are surrounded by laser-cut rubber appliqués and diamonds.

Each piece in the RM 07-01 Coloured Ceramics collection comes in a summery shade – blush pink, lavender or powder blue. All three feature bezels and casebacks made from tetragonal zirconia polycrystal (TZP) ceramic with a sophisticated matt finish, a material chosen for its winning combination of lightness, strength and ability to retain colour over long periods of time.

The RM 07-01 Coloured Ceramics timepieces are powered by the fully skeletonised CRMA2 movement. Featuring a variable geometry rotor in red gold that adapts winding to the wearer’s activity, it ensures that the new watches are as smart as they are visually spectacular.