Profile | King Richard and his objects of desire Richard Mille talks about his company, his vision, and why he makes the watches he makes

Profile | King Richard and his objects of desire

Richard Mille talks about his company, his vision, and why he makes the watches he makes

 

Since 2001, Richard Mille and his namesake brand have established a reputation for making unique, highquality, high-performance sports timepieces. Richard Mille watches, with their signature skeletonized movements and cushion-shaped case, are ubiquitous on the wrists of celebrities and world-class sportspersons such as Rafael Nadal and Felipe Massa.
At SIHH this year, Richard Mille spoke to Indulge about his company, his vision, and why he makes the watches he makes. Edited excerpts:
Tell us about the genesis of the Richard Mille watch. When you started the brand, how did you choose to have this particular combination of movement and design?
I’d wanted to launch my own watch company for a very long time. Not for my ego! But at that time I was working for a company. And you know how things are when you work for a corporation. You cannot do what you want. You have to worry about so many people, including shareholders. I noticed by the end that I was more into numbers than into creation. And I was very frustrated. That was the reason why I started Richard Mille.
I wanted to decide everything myself. At my factory right now, they call me the dictator. I am not a dictator. But I don’t take advice from anybody. I work as if I am working for and by myself. In my experience, if you start doing too much market study and then you start asking this person and that person about this and that…in the end, one person will you tell you they want this, the other person will tell you they want that. In the end, you are mixed up and nothing happens.

Mille does not want to go into commercial details.

Whenever I want to do something, I quickly check the feasibility and then I go. After that, in any case, reality will slow you down. It took years and years to make the sapphire case watch that we have now launched. For years, I was pulling my hair out. And finally we were able to achieve it. But it was and is a nightmare. It takes three months to make one of those cases.But this is what I like to do. I hate commercial products. I think that the luxury world today means nothing anymore. Everything is so mass market. Which is alright; I don’t have any problem with mass-market brands. But as far as I am concerned, what I love is extreme products. Extreme luxury. And thanks to god I have more and more clients who understand this philosophy.
So, it is a philosophy that works for me. Everything makes sense and is coherent—my products, my volumes, the philosophy of the brand. Everything is comprehensive. If I decided to make tens of thousands of watches, my company would collapse. This year, I might do around 2,800 pieces. Of course, they are all extremely expensive. Why are they so expensive? Not because I want to sell expensive watches, but because they are so expensive to make. Simple.
And now that you are so successful, are you able to keep creating or are you being forced to look at numbers again?

No, no! I am not interested in them. Of course, I am not masochistic. I like making money. And I make money. The only thing I don’t want to do is go into commercial details. Everything I do is to keep demand higher than production. That way, I have to do nothing to sell. In my previous life, I was pushing products all the time. Pushing and pushing for sales. It is boring! What I love is a good product that people love and that represents an object of desire.It is like being in love. The day you are no longer an object of desire, it is finished. Just like that, my aim is to make my babies (points to watches) objects of desire.
Is your philosophy and this strategy affected by the economic realities of the market?
Not at all, for several reasons. First of all, I organize myself properly. I divide my output into three—one-third each for America, Europe and Asia. Asia is a little more, around 40%. This is good for me, and like I said, I make less than the demand I have to satisfy. Secondly, at this combination of product and price, I don’t feel anything. The economic slowdown did not impact me in 2008 or 2009, and it is certainly not hurting me now.
Let me give you an example of what I do. Last year, one of my hottest pieces was the RM011 chronograph. Last year, I must have sold some 600 pieces of the watch. So this year, I decided to make 400 pieces. Everyone is now screaming at me. I don’t give a damn. Because I want to create the desire. You cannot create the desire if you create thousands upon thousands upon thousands of watches…
The RM052.Now what inspires you to wake up one day and think to yourself: ‘‘You know what? I need a skull in my watch.’’
For years and years, I have been saying that the high end of this business is a ghetto. An ivory tower. We must open this ivory tower and be open to sports and arts and architecture and lifestyle. Now I have developed so many high-end sporty watches. Because I see no reason why you should buy a high-end watch, put it in a safe, lock it up, and then time to time you open it and have a look. No! I do watches that people wear. I do watches for an active life.
I also thought it was very important to touch classes of age that are younger. This makes me very emotional, but I know young people who borrow money to buy a watch, from their parents or from a bank. Wow. That means I have a responsibility. But it is fantastic. Because today, there are very few objects in the world that can (give me)—and I am sorry to say this word—a hard-on.
But I love the fact that I have many, many clients who own four or five Richard Mille watches. Every time I meet a prospective client who is thinking of buying their first Richard Mille, I tell them be careful. Be very careful. Because my watches are like drugs—once you are into it, you are finished.