Watchmaker Kari Voutilainen spotted wearing a Richard Mille

An archival photograph of Kari Voutilainen surfaced in the context of his well-deserved Artistic Crafts Watch Prize win at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève, and sharp-eyed observers will note something unexpected on the Finnish master's wrist: a Richard Mille RM002 Tourbillon in rose gold. For a watchmaker celebrated for hand-finishing, traditional guillochage, and quiet mechanical poetry, the choice is a conversation-starter.

The Richard Mille RM002 Tourbillon is historically significant as the model that effectively launched the brand's commercial identity. The preceding RM001 was produced in a run of just 17 pieces — barely enough to establish a reference point — before Richard Mille and movement architect Michel Parmigiani's protégé Renaud & Papi evolved the concept into the RM002. The rose gold case houses a skeletonised manual-winding tourbillon movement with a baseplate and bridges machined from grade-5 titanium, a then-radical choice borrowed from aerospace engineering. Three dedicated subdials display torque output, power reserve, and movement function selector (winding, neutral, hand-setting), giving the wearer direct mechanical feedback that most traditional watchmakers would consider unnecessary showmanship — or, depending on perspective, honest engineering transparency.

Among collectors, the RM002 occupies a foundational position. Early Richard Mille references in precious metal with complete functional displays are infrequently traded, and when they do appear at auction, they command serious attention precisely because they predate the brand's global celebrity endorsement machine. These are watches that were bought by engineers, architects, and connoisseurs — not athletes or rappers — which lends them a different collector cachet today.

Voutilainen, who trained under Parmigiani and later at the Wostep school, founded his eponymous independent manufacture in Môtiers, Switzerland. His work — characterised by exquisitely finished movements, original complications, and limited annual production — sits philosophically at the opposite pole from Richard Mille's high-tech, sport-luxury ethos. Yet the photograph suggests genuine curiosity rather than irony: a craftsman appreciating a very different kind of mechanical ambition.

On the secondary market, early rose gold Richard Mille RM002 Tourbillon examples are thinly traded. Retail pricing at launch was in the range of $150,000–$200,000 USD, and surviving examples in strong condition can exceed that figure among specialist collectors today, driven by rarity and historical significance within the Richard Mille canon.