Partners In Time

Richard Mille adds a snowboarder and a navigator of European royal lineage to its long list of athlete friends

- Brian Cheong

MEET OLYMPIC champion Ester Ledecká and Pierre Casiraghi of the Monaco royal family, Richard Mille’s newest partners from the sporting arena. They are in good company, joining a list of notables that include Rafael Nadal, NafiThiam, Wayde van Niekerk and the McLaren Formula 1 Team.

As partners, these sportspeople are more than famous faces endorsing the brand—they serve as credible testers in real-life situations for the watches, which only burnishes Richard Mille’s already shining reputation.

The association with sports is a natural one when you consider the founder’s fondness for fast cars and pushing the limits. From the beginning, Mr Mille had adopted the philosophy of building watches as one would build a racecar; the exorbitant cost of such an approach was a secondary concern to him.

As such, a Richard Mille watch is a veritable showcase of engineering and technological feats. For instance, the dominant use of atypical materials to build its watches—think hi-tech stuff like Carbon TPT, commonly used to construct the chassis of F1 cars as well as carbon nanotubes that have incredible resistance against shocks.