Watch Paparazzi

Rapper Huang Zitao spotted wearing Richard Mille

Huang Zitao, the Chinese rapper, actor, and former EXO member known professionally as Z.TAO, was recently spotted wearing the Richard Mille RM 53-05, a tourbillon timepiece developed in close collaboration with musician and creative polymath Pharrell Williams. The sighting is notable not merely for the watch's extraordinary price point but for the conceptual depth the piece carries on the wrist.

The Richard Mille RM 53-05 sits at the intersection of haute horlogerie and contemporary art. At its heart beats a manually wound tourbillon caliber engineered to Richard Mille's signature high-performance standards, featuring a multi-layered skeletonized architecture housed in the brand's characteristic tonneau-shaped case. The movement employs grade-5 titanium and carbon nanofiber composite construction, keeping the case featherlight despite its visual density. But the defining element is the dial: each of the 30 pieces is individually hand-painted by artists working directly to Pharrell Williams's creative direction, with imagery rooted in his belief that human civilization will eventually extend its presence to Mars. No two dials are identical.

From a collector standpoint, the RM 53-05 occupies rare ground even within Richard Mille's own catalog. Pharrell Williams has been one of the brand's most artistically ambitious collaborators — earlier joint projects introduced the RM 52-05 skull tourbillon — and the Mars-themed RM 53-05 escalates that creative ambition further. An edition of 30 pieces, each unique by virtue of its painted dial, creates a collecting scenario closer to acquiring a signed painting than purchasing a production watch. Secondary market movement on pieces of this nature is nearly invisible simply because owners rarely sell.

For Huang Zitao, whose public persona blends Chinese hip-hop culture with high-fashion sensibility, the RM 53-05 reads as a coherent personal statement rather than simple flex. He has long positioned himself at the intersection of Eastern and Western luxury codes, and wearing a piece tied to Pharrell Williams — one of the few Western artists with genuine cross-cultural resonance in China — adds a layer of intentionality that distinguishes this sighting.

With an official retail price of $1,050,000 and only 30 examples in existence, the Richard Mille RM 53-05 Pharrell Williams edition has no meaningful grey market. Transactions, when they occur, happen privately and almost certainly above list. It is, in every measurable sense, a collector's object first and a watch second.