The Most Expensive Richard Mille Watches Ever Sold

Known for their cutting-edge use of lightweight materials and extravagant prices, Richard Mille is arguably the most exclusive watchmaker in the world. Before getting into the most expensive Richard Mille watches, it's good to get a little context on both the brand and the man. While not a watchmaker by trade, Mille and his brand co-founder Dominique Guenat understood the importance of having a vision and making it a reality. An obsession with lightweight materials and design that push the boundaries of what’s possible in a package as small as a wristwatch, along with some excellent marketing (not to mention good luck), have resulted in a brand that is at the pinnacle of the very highest end of the market.

Image by Sotheby's

Yes, the six- and seven-figure price tags of Richard Mille watches continue to baffle people (we covered why here). Exclusivity is key, especially in a world where the number of billionaires jumped 500% between 2000 and 2024, and the number of ultra-high-net-worth-individuals (UHNWI) with at least $30 million in net investible assets has grown to 626,619 globally. Of course, Richard Mille watches do not fetch record-breaking prices simply due to exclusivity but because of the exhaustive R&D process that is unlike any other in watchmaking. Here, we will take a look at some of the most expensive Richard Mille watches ever. By the nature of how these things work, just about all of these sales are coming from the auction market, where the already mind-boggling price tags enter stratospheric territory.

You’ll notice a lot of the top sales numbers were achieved around 2022, when the watch market was arguably still at its peak in the Covid/post-Covid times. While it’s impossible to say what the prices would be like today, it’s unlikely the market would be stronger at the time of writing in 2025.

RM 27-04 Rafael Nadal

We start the list of the most expensive Richard Mille watches with the RM 27-04. The partnership between Richard Mille and tennis star Rafael Nadal began in 2010 and continues to this day. In 2020 the two marked a decade of partnership with the RM 27-04 movement, which weighs just 30 grams and was auctioned by Phillips for CHF 1,663,500 in 2021. A tourbillon that can withstand the force of impact during a tennis match (let alone the 12,000Gs the RM 27-4 can handle), the movement of this watch is held in place by a micro-blasted mesh that measures just 855 square millimeters and is comprised of a single braided steel cable with a .27mm diameter. Indeed, this should remind you of a tennis racket, because that is exactly what these strings are inspired by. The cable passes around 38 times before it’s affixed to a tensioner at 10 o’clock. The movement is then positioned diagonally and connected to the mesh with 5 titanium hooks extending from the back of the base plate.

Additionally, the RM 27-04 case is made of TitaCarb, which is a polyamide strengthened with 38.5% carbon fiber, resulting in one of the most resistant polymers out there.

RM 38-02 Bubba Watson

Formula 1 racing, tennis, and golf have been the big three sports for Richard Mille to draw ambassadors from. In 2011, Richard Mille and golfer Bubba Watson teamed up to create the RM 38 Tourbillon with a threefold focus on lightness, shock resistance, and wearing comfort. RM and Watson went on to create four watches together, with the most recent RM 38-02 Tourbillon winning a spot on this list when it sold for just around $2,000,000 in late 2023. The manual-wind tourbillon RM 38-02 stands out with its bright pink case, which is an homage to Watson’s “lucky" pink golf club.

Limited to 50 pieces, the RM 38-02 has a carbon TPT baseplate, grade 5 titanium bridges, and touches of pink on two tubes on the open bridge that pass through the movement. Even more impressive is the pink-colored, micro-perforated bridge on the back of the movement which is finished in PVD and is very sensitive to even the slightest error by the watchmaker. The fun asymmetrical case is in pink Quartz TPT, white Quartz TPT, and Carbon TPT which come together to create this bubbly yet remarkably resilient and lightweight package.

Richard Mille's Personal RM001

Image by Christie's

This is a real piece of Richard Mille history. Auctioned off in late 2022 for CHF 2,094,000, this was Richard Mille’s personal watch that had the movement number 001 and was very likely the prototype for the RM001 that was debuted all the way back in 2001. Rather than the cutting-edge lightweight materials or sapphire cases we see a lot of these record-breaking RM watches sporting, this one is in pink gold case and has the “pre-series” caliber RM001/4 movement with German silver baseplate. According to Christie’s, only 11 Richard Mille watches were made with a German silver baseplate for the movement before the switch to titanium. Beyond its obvious place as a significant piece of contemporary watchmaking history, the RM001 had a one-minute tourbillon as well as torque and power-reserve indicators.

RM 67-02 Charles Leclerc Prototype

Image by Christie's

Richard Mille has had a longstanding partnership with Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc, and the RM 67-02 was designed to be so lightweight so as to feel like a “second skin” for the driver. Weighing just 32 grams, this made it Richard Mille’s lightest automatic watch, and it would go on to hit the auction block at Christie’s in 2021, where it fetched CHF 2,100,000.

RM S14 "Talisman Origene"

At the 2024 edition of the charity auction Only Watch, a unique Richard Mille RM S14 Talisman Origine sold for CHF2,380,000. This unusual piece was described as a “shamanic relic,” which is basically a tonneau-shaped watch case transformed into a wearable pendant. This piece was created using techniques that were new even for Richard Mille, resulting in a hand-engraved piece with “integrated claws” while the necklace portion is done in briar wood, red gold, titanium, and rhodonite beads that are strung on a metal/rubber cord with a clasp made of 5N red gold, polished titanium balls, and briar wood. Truly one of the most “out there” creations by Richard Mille, the RM S14 fetched such a high price that even the most committed detractors had to give it some respect for landing so high up on the list of the most expensive Richard Mille watches.

RM 56-01 Sapphire

The RM 56-01 was manufactured in 2013 and was sold at auction by Christie’s in 2022 for a whopping CHF 3,654,000 (retail for this watch was just shy of $2 million). You’ll notice these highest-sale-price watches all have a sapphire crystal case in common, and the RM56-01 is no different. Done in transparent sapphire, the watch also has a sapphire crystal baseplate supporting the entire tourbillon movement, which itself is made of titanium. Richard Mille had to custom-order a CNC machine specifically for this watch and it takes more than 40 days of machining for 24 hours a day to create the complex sapphire case.

A few years later, in 2024, a RM 56-02 sold for $3,014,500 at auction by Christie’s. The RM 56-02 was a follow up to the RM56-01 and is mainly differentiated by its use of a newer movement that borrowed from the RM27-01 Rafael Nadal. There is also the infamous pièce unique RM 56 “The Blueprint” that was made for Jay-Z in a blue sapphire case followed by an all-green-sapphire RM 56, both of which were designed by Alex Todd. These are each said to have cost around $3 million. That said, it’s possible either of these could break the record price for the most expensive Richard Mille watch were they ever to come to market.

RM 53-02 Blue Sapphire

Image by Sotheby's

With a brilliant blue sapphire case, the RM 53-02 sold for 35,540,000 HKD (or, about ~$4,500,000) at auction in Hong Kong in 2023. This was one of eight pieces in all-blue sapphire, which is remarkably difficult to create due to the triple-curved tonneau case shape, which takes a staggering 1,000 hours to produce. The cable-suspended tourbillon movement is another novel piece of watchmaking that was actually inspired by the suspension bridge. These cables are .27mm thick and there are 10 pulleys that distribute tension evenly. As for the case, it is created from a single piece of blue sapphire with no polymers used to machine the angles or lines. There is likely no watchmaker other than Richard Mille that is capable of creating such a nuanced and complex case as this one.

The Most Expensive Richard Mille: RM 52-01 "Vanitas Vanitatum"

Image by Antiquorum

The Richard Mille RM 52-01 Tourbillon Sapphire Skull “Vanitas Vanitatum” was sold at auction for just shy of $7 million in 2022 which certainly makes it the most expensive Richard Mille. This iteration of the RM 52 “Skull” tourbillon was initially released back in 2019 and has a rare (possibly one-of-a-kind) brown sapphire crystal case with baseplate and bridges done in the form of a titanium skull, with the upper and lower jaws holding the ruby of the tourbillon cage.

Image by Antiquorum

There were two RM 52-04 Tourbillon Sapphire Skull watches produced in blue and red sapphire with just three of each model made. One of these blue RM 52-04 watches is owned by Indian billionaire heir Anant Ambani and another has been seen on the wrist of Sheikh Joaan Bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar. While it’s hard to get a concrete number on what these would be worth, it’s fair to say the figure would be around $3 million or more. Also, you’ll recall the RM 52-05 made for Pharrell Williams in 2019, which had the Martian astronaut motif rather than a skull. This watch is done in a brown ceramic case and had a relatively large production number of 30 pieces. One of these was auctioned by Sotheby’s in 2023 for a price of 12,550,000 HKD which comes out to just around $1,600,000. You can learn more about the brand at richardmille.com