Politician Jean Todt spotted wearing a Richard Mille

Spotted at a Formula 1 event in his capacity as President of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, Jean Todt made a characteristically understated but technically loaded wrist choice: the Richard Mille RM 027 Tourbillon, one of only 50 examples ever produced. For a man who spent decades at the pinnacle of motorsport — first as Scuderia Ferrari's team principal during its dominant Schumacher era, then as FIA chief — the RM 027 reads less like a status symbol and more like an engineering statement.

The Richard Mille RM 027 Tourbillon is built around a manual-winding tourbillon movement, Calibre RM 27-01, constructed with a baseplate and bridges in carbon nanofiber reinforced with silica. The result is a movement that tips the scales at a staggering 3.83 grams. The case, rendered in Carbon TPT — Richard Mille's proprietary layered carbon composite — keeps total watch weight to approximately 18.83 grams. The movement beats at 21,600 vph and offers a 70-hour power reserve. A hours, minutes, and power reserve indicator round out the display. Shock resistance was engineered to withstand forces exceeding 300g, a specification born from its original brief: surviving Rafael Nadal's tennis serve.

The RM 027 holds a singular place in the Richard Mille catalogue. It was developed in direct partnership with Nadal and debuted in 2013 as proof that a tourbillon could survive athletic punishment without compromise. The 50-piece limitation was never revisited at this reference level, cementing its status among serious collectors. It represents a convergence of complications and material science that few other manufacturers have attempted, let alone achieved.

For Jean Todt, the choice carries biographical weight. His career — from rally co-driver to Ferrari legend to global motor sport regulator — tracks almost precisely with Richard Mille's own trajectory as the watchmaker that most deliberately adopted Formula 1's vocabulary of lightweight materials, telemetry-inspired aesthetics, and marginal-gains engineering.

On the secondary market, the Richard Mille RM 027 Tourbillon commands significant premiums over its already substantial list price, reflecting both the 50-piece scarcity and the enduring collector appetite for early-generation Richard Mille skeletonized tourbillons. With a UK list price of approximately £420,000, grey-market values have historically tracked above retail, particularly for examples in unworn condition.