It’s said that when the watch brand RichardMille burst on the scene in 2001, it soundly and swiftly changed the game. Legend goes that Mille, the man, flung his fancy, newly created titanium tourbillon watch on the ground and across rooms to prove its robustness. High watchmaking, that exclusive world of delicate complications and timepieces handled with greater care than a newborn, was rocked. In its place, a new paradigm emerged: beauty expressed through mechanical and material sophistry.
In the years since, the watchmaker has established a signature look to call its own. A sensual curved tonneau case silhouette; openworked dials that make clear a watch’s horological workings; as well as unique materials—vibrant ceramics and quartz, carbon with a seductive Damascene woodgrain pattern, mindblowingly see-through blocks of coloured sapphire—that give the brand’s creations a singular aesthetic.
The elegant RM 07-01 Automatic model is perhaps the brand’s quintessential feminine design. Its tonneau silhouette is more slender and elongated, and Richard Mille has applied the experience and advances it has made over time to give it a panoply of aesthetic variations. That’s clearest in the way that the watchmaker uses diamonds. Far from simply paving a bezel, the brand has explored varied ways of crafting unique looks in the collection.
On the Starry Night Carbon TPT model, Richard Mille puts on show its mastery of the super lightweight and durable material. Diamonds are set directly into the composite carbon cases, a challenge compared to working with traditional metal materials. With it, the brand has set diamonds of various sizes on the case to take on the look of scattered, twinkling constellations. On Snow Set models, a similar fundamental is taken to an extreme. Diamonds of different sizes are set close together, in a seemingly organic and random fashion, to create a look of precious stones blanketing and covering the surface of a watch.
And even when Richard Mille explores a traditional form like baguette-cut diamonds, it takes the craft and sophistication to a higher level. The settings are carefully designed to hug and accentuate the curves of the RM 07-01’s case, so that the entirety of the timepiece becomes a radiant rivière of light. A more typical use of round diamonds and pavé might soften the lines of the design, but the straight edges of the gemstones and its carefully calibrated settings instead emphasise that oh-so recognisable tonneau silhouette.
The March 2026 ‘Ignite’ edition of Vogue Singapore is available on newsstands and online.
