No Limits

Famed for its ingenious butterfly rotor, Richard Mille's RM 35-03 makes its comeback cloaked in Carbon TPT

- Andre Frois

Many high-end watches from the past were often clunky and to be handled with great care, up till Richard Mille made his unforgettable debut in 2001 by slamming his first timepiece, the RM 001 tourbillon watch, to the ground. After it absorbed that devastating impact, monsieur Mille showed the bewildered onlookers at the now-defunct watch and jewellery trade show Baselworld that the six-figure watch continued to keep time.

By leveraging high-tech proprietary case materials and a circuitous system of cables and shock absorbers, the intrepid Frenchman introduced watches that shunted fragility in favour of ultra-toughness-slim and lithe accessories that could be worn for any activity.

He emphasised that his watches could withstand immense G-force, by strapping them to the wrists of top athletes, and this was how the Richard Mille timepieces grew to become a common sight at Formula 1 and the Olympics.

BEFITTING A KING

In the 2000s, Mille tirelessly pursued Rafael Nadal, trying to convince the tennis champion to wear a Richard Mille watch on the court, and he developed numerous prototypes to appease the latter's lofty expectations for comfort and durability. Today, Nadal is one of the brand's most devout ambassadors, who has worn his Richard Mille watches to almost every single one of his French Open victories.