Mixed martial artist Yoshihiro Akiyama spotted wearing a Richard Mille

Yoshihiro Akiyama, the Japanese-Korean mixed martial artist and veteran of both the UFC and Bellator rosters, was recently photographed wearing a Richard Mille RM 55 Bubba Watson — a timepiece that, beneath its avant-garde exterior, is one of the most mechanically purposeful watches the Le Locle manufacture has ever produced.

The Richard Mille RM 55 was developed in close collaboration with PGA Tour golfer Bubba Watson and introduced in 2012. Its central engineering brief was extreme shock resistance: the case — offered in white quartz TPT or NTPT Carbon — is CNC-machined to tolerances measured in microns, and the manual-winding tourbillon movement, calibre RM55-01, sits in a titanium and grade 5 titanium baseplate with multilevel skeletonization. The watch measures 49.94 mm × 38.50 mm × 13.07 mm and is water resistant to 50 metres. The tourbillon bridge is secured by a spline-screw system designed to handle the lateral G-forces of a full golf drive — forces not entirely dissimilar to those produced by a professional-level striking athlete.

From a collector standpoint, the RM 55 occupies an interesting tier within the Richard Mille catalogue. It lacks the outright name recognition of the RM 011 or RM 035, yet its dedicated sports engineering and limited production runs in exotic case materials make it a consistent performer on the secondary market. The NTPT Carbon variants in particular attract buyers who prioritise material rarity alongside mechanical complexity. Auction appearances have remained steady, with clean examples rarely sitting unsold.

Akiyama, known to fans as 'Sexyama' for his habit of entering bouts to the sound of Barry White, has competed at the highest levels of MMA across Sengoku, UFC, and Bellator. His taste for high-complication watchmaking fits a pattern seen across combat sports: fighters who operate at physical extremes tend to gravitate toward watches built to matching standards.

At an official retail price in the region of £51,000, the Richard Mille RM 55 Bubba Watson sits in the brand's mid-catalogue range — accessible by RM standards yet still well beyond conventional luxury pricing. Grey-market values have tracked broadly in line with retail, occasionally moving above it for pristine, full-set examples in the more sought-after case materials.