RICHARD MILLE

Richard Mille partnered with watch-industry exec Dominique Guénat to found the Richard Mille brand in 2001, and two decades later the company has staked out an elite territory in the luxury watch industry with its avant-garde designs, its pioneering use of space-age materials, and its partnerships with high-profile athletes and celebrities. At its core, Richard Mille is a brand influenced profoundly by the automotive and aeronautical industries and incorporates materials and technologies from those worlds into its design DNA to produce “extreme watches for extreme conditions,” most often housing super-complex, lightweight movements inside signature tonneau-shaped cases. The list of high-tech materials Richard Mille has pioneered in the watch industry is lengthy, including graphene, carbon TPT and quartz TPT; much of the watches’ astronomical prices comes from the intense levels of R&D needed to perfect them. The company takes pride in making watches for use in punishing sports, like the series of timepieces it has made for Spanish tennis champ Rafael Nadal, which can withstand the extreme accelerations and impacts of being worn on a tennis court thanks in part to their super-light but rigid cases and movements cleverly suspended in the case by tiny cables.

Founded: 2001

Headquarters: Les Breuleux, Switzerland

Ownership: Private (The Richard Mille Group)

Notable models: RM 027 Rafael Nadal, RM 006 Felipe Masa Tourbillon, RM 50-03 McLaren F1

Did you know: Rafael Nadal wore a Richard Mille RM 27-04 Tourbillon, a watch valued at $1 million, while winning his record 21st Grand Slam title in 2022.