Modern Maverick

A look at the inner workings of one of the biggest (and most rebellious) independent brands in haute horlogerie.

- Lynette Koh

“When you wear a Richard Mille watch, people notice.” This was what watch fan and Richard Mille RM11 chronograph owner, Dr Calvin Chan, told us during a recent quick chat. That’s for sure. The brand’s timepieces bear distinctive characteristics such as a tonneau-shaped case, architectural movement and dial structure, and innovative, often exceptionally light materials. Coupled with the brand’s associations with sports stars such as tennis player Rafael Nadal and Formula One driver Felipe Massa, the brand’s offerings have found favour with some of the most flush of watch collectors. Prices start at over $70,000 (for an RM11 women’s automatic watch) and go into the millions.

In a recent interview with the brand’s eponymous founder, The New York Times noted that Richard Mille had produced 3,200 watches in 2015, a figure that had grown to 3,500 in 2016 and was expected to reach 4,000 this year. In 2016, revealed Mille himself, his company’s exports from Switzerland totalled around US$270 million (S$373 million) – a growth of 20 per cent from the previous year.

In spite of – or perhaps, because of – its popularity, the brand has its fair share of detractors, who baulk at the prices that Richard Mille watches command. Typically, they question how these watches have such eye-watering price tags despite bearing no precious metals, how their movements are made by other companies, and how the nearly 20-year-old brand doesn’t have much by way of a heritage. But at a time when many traditional fine-watch companies are faltering, perhaps Richard Mille is exactly the kind of disruptive force this industry needs – a notion that was reinforced after The Peak visited its facilities in Switzerland earlier this year.

MODERNITY AMID TRADITION