Watch Paparazzi

Youtuber Olajide JJ Olatunji KSI spotted wearing Richard Mille

KSI — born Olajide JJ Olatunji, Sidemen co-founder, chart-topping recording artist, and professional boxer — was recently spotted wearing a Richard Mille RM11 in DLC-coated black titanium, a variant produced exclusively for Richard Mille's American boutiques and limited to just 50 examples. For a creator whose brand is built on scale and visibility, the choice of one of the watchmaker's quieter, more technically specific limited editions says something worth noting.

The Richard Mille RM11 is a flyback chronograph with a GMT complication, placing it among the more mechanically complex references in the RM catalogue. Its calibre — the RMAC2 automatic movement, developed in collaboration with Audemars Piguet Renaud & Papi — delivers flyback functionality, a annual calendar, and a GMT display within a skeletonized architecture that keeps the movement visible through both sapphire crystals. The tonneau-shaped case in grade 5 titanium, treated here with Diamond-Like Carbon coating, measures approximately 50mm × 40mm and sits at just over 16mm thick: large by classical standards, restrained by Richard Mille's own.

The DLC treatment applied to this specific RM11 variant transforms an already purposeful case into something more austere. DLC coating — applied via plasma-assisted chemical vapour deposition — achieves a surface hardness of around 1,500 to 3,000 Vickers, dramatically outperforming untreated titanium and resisting scratching under conditions that would mark lesser case materials. The blacked-out aesthetic strips away the warm industrial contrast of bare titanium, leaving a monolithic matte form that reads as deliberately anti-flashy in a reference that retails above £120,000.

KSI's watch collection is well-documented across his social media output and has included a range of high-end references over the years. His audience — predominantly young, digitally native, and globally distributed — gives watch sightings on his wrist unusual reach. When someone with over 40 million YouTube subscribers chooses a 50-piece boutique exclusive over a more recognisable RM variant, it registers differently than celebrity placement.

On the secondary market, boutique-exclusive and regionally limited Richard Mille RM11 variants consistently command premiums over standard references. The 50-piece American boutique allocation and DLC specification make this one of the harder RM11 configurations to source, with grey-market pricing reflecting both the coating's collector appeal and the production ceiling.