Mille isn’t a watchmaker and for this he makes no apologies, he quickly points out that Enzo Ferrari was not a mechanic. He knows what he wants in a watch and his sensibility is matched and rewarded by his many customers.
Mille had a very successful career with the House of Mauboussin: when he left in 1998, he was CEO of the jewellery company and CEO of the holding company.
Mille left because he was ready to launch his own watch company. Mille has a love for all things with an engine – cars, motorcycles, aircraft and more. This love is reflected in his watches, which showcase the materials and the movements themselves.
“The ideas for my watches come from everywhere: something I see or read about,” Mille says. “However most of the ideas come from sources that are combining technical developments with the human hand and eye - sports cars, Formula One cars, the Perini Navi yacht like the Maltese Falcon, mechanical planetaria, airplanes and many other objects that require real engineering research and technology, yet in the end also need human hands to create them. A wristwatch is no different.”




RM014


All the designs and concepts are done in-house, but Mille is open to other ideas as well. “The fact that we do all our own designs ourselves does not mean that an idea will be rejected a priori just because it originates with someone else - you must be open and flexible, especially with people whose opinions you respect,” he says. “However, I do take full personal responsibility for approving any and all details of a watch’s final design and concept down to the last screw and spring, to ensure that it really should carry my name on it; on those issues, we don’t work by committee.”
Mille has the freedom to do what he wants to, when he wants to – after all, he only answers to himself. “I am not out to convince or change anyone, or tell people what they should do, make, or purchase,” he says. “That being said however, just doing what I think and feel already shows to others what is possible. In just six years I have promoted many new materials for watchmaking and many new innovative concepts - concepts that are not fads for impressing people or advertising campaigns, but real horological refinements and developments. By doing what I believe in, I have maybe shown the industry that there is no reason to be scared of new approaches to watchmaking. If that is so, then I consider it a good (and necessary) thing for all of us in the industry - as well as for collectors who invest their time and money in watches and watchmaking.”
The Richard Mille customer base is very broad, from collectors to presidents, kings and premiers of foreign countries as well as very well- to-do businessmen. “The factor which joins them all together is a passion and fascination for everything mechanical, and a demanding sense for the very best, for extreme quality in every detail of whatever they purchase,” he explains. “These are demanding people who are mad about watches and watchmaking - and know what they want and are willing to pay for it.”




RM012


The production
The production of a Richard Mille watch starts with the choice of a direction, for example, a particular type of watch and then Mille makes some sketches that he does just for himself. “These sketches might be very general or they might be precise and detailed quite early on,” he details. “After this, there will be several discussions with the engineering team, as well as with specific partners for the watch’s creation. This is the beginning of the give and take process. For instance, if I want something that has not been done before, then we have to research the possibilities, or perhaps slightly change some aspect of the design, or even find a suitable material for it.
“Once these time consuming issues are all cleared up, we then proceed to the creation of a prototype,” he continues. “This allows us to check the viability of the project and fine tune everything - but it is also a challenging time, since there is the possibility that we will take two years of research only to discover that there is no way to make it. This almost happened with the RM 012, which was held up as we continued to search for a methodology to create the tubular structure, for instance. We knew it should be technically possible to make it, but we had to discover the problems and issues in the practical methods of producing it, since it had never been done before.”
Once all these myriad issues are cleared up, the production process follows at a very high level of quality and production, a system that all Mille’s designated manufacturers follow - the criterion for Mille is the best of the best. For example, Audemars Piguet Renaud & Papi are responsible for the complicated pieces like the tourbillons and split seconds chronographs, Soprod is used for the RM 007 ladies calibre and Vaucher for the automatic calibre 005-S. In addition there are other firms supplying specialized expertise.
“We do not adhere to the manufacture concept that is in itself an artificiality; it was never like that in Switzerland to begin with,” Mille explains. “From the earliest times, each area, village or town had a specialty, and people worked together to create timepieces. Why create your own tourbillon if the experts who have done it for years live just down the road in the valley below, only for the sake of a title ‘manufacture’? There is no manufacture in Switzerland that makes everything themselves, so I go for the best of the best, and oversee the design of specially developed movements for the Richard Mille lines. This way the essence of the watch remains in our control, regardless of who has worked on it with us. This is the ideal way to work, in my opinion.”
It’s important for Mille to have proprietary Richard Mille movements, to ensure quality and to set the company apart. “Even if the geometrical layout of a movement is the same as another calibre, as is the case with the 005-S and 007 calibres, the changes and new innovations added to those two calibres for RM watches are in my opinion critical and important for the watch’s functioning, stability, design and long term strength,” he continues. “The materials used, movement bridges, gears and screws among other details used in the movements are all totally reworked into new calibres to be fully integral with my ideas and improvements are added.
“This is different in the case of the tourbillons and split seconds watches like the RM 002-V2, 003-V2, 004-V2, 008-1, 006, 009, 012, 014 and 015,” he continues. “Those are all newly designed movements that were created from scratch, and each watch represents tremendous breakthroughs like nothing else on the market. In fact, the majority of the RM collection timepieces use revolutionary, newly designed movements.”
Right now, Richard Mille watches are very exclusively distributed. In 2006, Richard Mille produced about 1,500 wristwatches and the prediction for this year is about 2,000, and some years in the future, Mille predicts a ceiling of about 5,000 pieces a year. “This means we will never have several hundred retail outlets carrying our timepieces - which is not our aim anyway as we are a very exclusive brand,” he says. “At the moment there is a bit more growth of outlets in comparison to available watches for sale that can create some tension in the marketplace. However this will come more and more in line as we continue to grow.”
Mille is proud of his commitment to quality. He allows no compromise, no cost cutting in order to keep market share. In his mind, A Richard Mille product is a watch “that is really a pure machine in every detail and aspect, made to the highest standards that exist today.” Richard Mille retail prices start at Euro 33,000 and go up to Euro 500,000.




RM010


“A Richard Mille watch is extremely comfortable to wear, yet contains so many details, ideas and techniques that you will want to take a watchmaker’s loupe to look at it closely every evening,” Mille says proudly. “I am having the most fun of my life! I am doing exactly what I want, together with inspired and talented people. What could be more fun than that?
“I really enjoy turning the world upside down and doing things the way I want, without a lot of resistance,” he continues. “With each passing year, the belief in the brand’s concepts and timepieces is increasing exponentially, and this in turn means that we have increasing possibilities, both economically and structurally, to push the brand further into new areas. I worked hard to get that freedom to create what I want - and I intend to use it!”
Mille, however, admits that the company he founded is in a challenging position. “At the moment we are in a transitional phase, that is to say we are currently well established as a phenomenon within the watch industry, and en route to a new challenge,” he says. “The range of watches has been enlarged and broadened appreciably, we are increasing our after-sales service, dedicated to the development of in-house training for our retailers, created RM Europe to aid the service of our European based clients and these kinds of issues. This is typical of the secondary phase after a brand has entered the scene; increasing attention to the long-term development and the creation of new models that retain and underline the essence of the concepts we stand for.”

For Mille, time is luxury. “It’s a luxury to have time,” he says. “Time is something that is inside each Richard Mille watch. So, I am actually involved in the creation of more time every day!”


Source: Europa Star August-September 2007 Magazine Issue