Royal Darussalam spotted wearing a Richard Mille

The Crown Prince of Brunei, Prince Mateen, has long maintained a reputation as one of the world's most serious watch collectors, and a recent sighting showing him wearing a Richard Mille RM 59-01 'Yohan Blake' does nothing to undermine that standing. With a UK list price of £430,000, this is not a casual purchase — it is a deliberate statement from a collector who understands exactly what he is wearing.

The Richard Mille RM 59-01 is built around one of the brand's most technically ambitious movements: a hand-wound tourbillon calibre whose bridges and baseplate are machined from grade-5 sapphire crystal. Sapphire is second only to diamond in hardness on the Mohs scale, which makes it extraordinarily difficult to machine with the precision watchmaking demands. The movement offers approximately 48 hours of power reserve and is fitted within a tonneau-shaped case that measures 50.30 mm × 42.70 mm — generous dimensions designed to showcase the movement's near-total transparency. The watch was developed in collaboration with Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake, the world's second-fastest man over 100 metres, and the skeletonized aesthetic carries overt references to athletic dynamism.

Production was capped at 50 pieces, and that figure is the single most important number attached to the RM 59-01. Richard Mille has produced rarities before, but pairing extreme mechanical complexity — sapphire components, a flying tourbillon, full skeletonization — with a 50-unit ceiling places this reference in a category occupied by very few watches in history. Collectors who missed original allocation have found secondary-market access both difficult and expensive.

The Crown Prince of Brunei is no stranger to Richard Mille's more theatrical productions. His family's patronage of haute horlogerie is well documented, and the Sultanate of Brunei's oil wealth has placed extraordinary timepieces on royal wrists for decades. Spotting the RM 59-01 in active wear suggests genuine appreciation rather than display.

On the grey market, the Richard Mille RM 59-01 'Yohan Blake' commands a significant premium over its already formidable list price, reflecting both the scarcity of 50 units and the sustained global demand for tourbillon-grade Richard Mille references among collectors and royals alike.