In the world of Luxury Sports watches, a Richard Mille watch stands out from the rest. Since the brand launched its first watch about 2 decades ago, its identity has been fully tied to high-octane sports. Very few brands are as closely associated with F1 racing, Tennis, Golf and other sports as Richard Mille is.
So how did a sports watch manage to carve a name for itself in the high-end luxury watchmaking game? We can attribute it to a combination of factors. While the Richard Mille brand is famous for functionality and durability, it remains a powerful symbol of wealth and status, desired not just by athletes but also by celebrities.
The French company only makes about 5,300 a year, with an average cost of $250,000. Yet, it sells out at almost the same pace as century-old watchmakers. In this article, we’ll explore Richard Mille’s journey from racing to royalty, spot-lighting the various ways the Richard Mille watch design has been influenced by sports.
A Merger Of Two Passions
To understand the journey of the Richard Mille brand from racing to luxury watch royalty, you’ll have to take a closer look at the company’s two decades of history and founding philosophy. The company’s founder Richard Mille has always been an automobile nut right since his youth. In fact, some sources claim that motor racing (rather than watchmaking) was his first love.
In that sense, one could say that the Richard Mille brand is a merger of two of his biggest passions. In fact, the company’s original motto in its early days was “a racing machine on the wrist”, demonstrating how much the brand would be influenced by F1 racing and other high-energy sports.
The RM 001, the company’s first watch took direct inspiration from F1 race cars both visually and functionally. The bridge of the watch’s tourbillon cage was designed to mimic the front suspension rods of an F1 race car. Subsequent models have followed the same pattern ever since with one of the most recognizable designs in the watch industry. They were mostly tonneau, or rounded rectangular shaped, with transparent dials to showcase the watch’s intricate and precisely finished guts.
In the words of the company’s founder, Richard Mille watches are created the same way F1 cars are – With separate teams working on chassis, engine, body and aerodynamics, all with an understanding of the ultimate objective which is to build a comfortable, shock resistant, durable and lightweight wristwatch.
Durability
Although they have come a long way from their rugged past and have become highly esteemed status symbols, sports watches are essentially tool watches. They’re built for athletes, dare-devil adventurers and even military men. To time athletic events accurately and remain functional, these watches have to be built to endure rough conditions. So while Richard Mille makes elegant and stylish watches, they’re still action watches at heart and are designed to withstand the rigors of sporting events.
Over the years, the Richard Mille company has taken durability and shock resistance very seriously. The watches are built for motorsport and high-intensity sporting events and have proven their ability to endure some of the most demanding conditions.
In the early years of the Richard Mille brand, the founder would attend conventions and other events and throw the watches to the pavement just to show that they wouldn’t break. This demonstrates just how passionate he was about making stylish watches that could withstand almost anything.
Today, Richard Mille watches are held to the same standards. Each timepiece is hand and machine-tested to ensure it holds up to the promise of durability. They’re subjected to shock, ultraviolet and moisture tests and only released after they meet the stringent quality conditions set by the company.
An average Richard Mille watch has an advanced anti-shock system built into it to protect delicate components from external impacts. They also feature suspended suspensions, designed to float within the case and absorb shocks. This unique design and the brand’s exceptional use of quality material minimize the chances of potential damage to these watches.
Functional Watches
Sports watches are meant to be a blend of beauty and function. Beyond their aesthetic brilliance, you want these watches to fit nicely on your wrist as snugly as possible as you participate in high-energy activities. This is evident in every Patek Philippe timepiece. The company’s founders (Richard Mille and Guenat) wanted to create elegant watches that were equally useful to athletes.
Consequently, they invested heavily in research and development and also collaborated with sports professionals to bring every piece to life. Every new release is often born out of a partnership with an Olympic medalist, world record holder and other renowned sports professionals. Beyond the marketing potentials of such partnerships, it also helps the company produce watches that can perform effectively even at the highest levels of sports.
For instance, the recently released RM 055 Bubba Watson timepiece featured a G-force sensor that could accurately measure a golfer’s drive. Richard Mille also makes watches for F1 drivers designed to withstand the high G-force that F1 drivers are exposed to while they race. Only a powerful and highly functional watch could withstand the blurring speeds and high-energy situations that RM watches are often subjected to. The timepieces are uniquely adapted to ensure they don’t impede an athlete’s performance.
To ensure this, the company builds watches that are so lightweight they feel like an athlete’s second skin. The watch casing is crafted from high-quality composite materials like Carbon TPT and Quartz TPT which makes them extremely shock-resistant while staying lightweight. The RM 67-02 for instance is only about 32 grams, it is the lightest watch in Richard Mille’s collection and one of the lightest timepieces ever made.
In addition to the material, the watches are assembled in a way that reduces their footprint. RM watches are made with highly elastic non-slip straps. So whether an athlete is blazing through the tracks or diving from an airplane, the watch stays fit on the wrist, adapting to the wearer’s morphology.
The straps are highly elastic, entirely seamless and non-slip. They perfectly fit the contours of each wrist, adapting to individual morphology. As the lightest strap the brand has ever created, it has helped lighten the watch’s weight. This makes the RM 67-02 the lightest automatic watch of the Richard Mille collection.
Some of the latest RM watches come with even more advanced features. For instance, the recently released RM 35-03 “Baby Nadal” wrist watch which took more than three years to develop comes with a new winding mechanism known as the butterfly rotor and has an advanced “sport mode.”
The Most Advanced Materials
Richard Mille’s affinity for sports is not limited to the design of the company’s watches, it extends to the materials as well. Since its inception, the brand has always made use of advanced materials inspired by sports like Formula 1 racing, tennis and sailing. In these sports, every gram of weight counts, and the company has adopted its philosophy in designing its timepieces, saving weight wherever possible.
Richard Mille is an industry leader as far as high-tech materials are concerned. Traditional materials like Titanium and ceramics have their limits, which makes them unsuitable for the active sporting needs of Richard Mille watches. To solve this problem, Richard Mille looked beyond the traditional materials, introducing new ones you’ll probably never find on any other watch.
For instance, the company collaborated with the Swiss material company, North Thin Ply Technology, to develop a proprietary ultra-light carbon material known as NTPT carbon. This material has similar qualities as the carbon used on F1 car chassis and the mast of sailing yachts. Another innovative material that resulted from this collaboration is the Quart TPT, which consists of ultra-thin quartz fibers applied in successive layers.
The structure of these unique materials gives them enormous strength and resistance while ensuring they stay lightweight. Aside from the material, the company also invests in innovative designs that deliver the best outcomes in terms of functionality and durability. One example of such innovative design is the limited edition RM 027 timepiece that Richard Mille released to celebrate the 10-year-old partnership with tennis star Rafael Nadal.
The casing was made from an innovative material known as TitaCarb, a type of titanium-carbon alloy. The baseplate and bridge were also made from grade 5 titanium material. This material mix ensures that the watch is less than 30 grams in weight. Another impressive aspect of the watch’s design is the design of its caliber. The caliber is suspended in an ultra-fine, micro-blasted steel cable mesh, with a mesh-like design inspired by a tennis racket. The combination of these design elements makes the watch strong enough to resist accelerations of over 12,000 Gs, which you can expect from a tennis athlete like Nadal capable of hitting 200 km/h serves.
Sport Sponsorship
Keeping with its image as a luxury sports watch to own, Richard Mille invests in quality partnerships with important battles and valuable event sponsorship. The goal of many of these partnerships is to project a lifestyle of sports luxury that the brand has grown to be associated with.
Richard Mille has been the main sponsor and official timekeeper of the Le Mans Classic right from its early days. The company has also released several timepieces in honor of this racing event. They are released as limited edition pieces, worth up to $300,000 in some cases.
Richard Mille is also one of the main sponsors of the Rallye des Princesses, an annual motorsport event that targets women car collectors. These are just a few of the company’s major sports sponsorships.
By sponsoring and associating with these events, Richard Mille hopes to make its products visible to an audience that’s likely to embrace the design ethos and unique lifestyle that Richard Mille Watches promises. F1 enthusiasts, vintage car collectors, sportsmen and women are more likely to relate to the design of the Richard Mille than anyone else, and what better place to meet them than at events that celebrate their passions?
Conclusion
While Richard Mille might not have history or legacy behind it like older watchmakers, the company is owning its niche perfectly, maintaining a top spot as the most elegant and functional luxury sports watch in the market. Each new release is heavily inspired by sporting events, athletic exploits and the need to build powerful watches that will remain functional even in the most demanding situations possible. Richard Mille has excelled at this so far and is in a good position to keep it up for many more decades.
Published by HOLR Magazine.