Footballer Riyad Mahrez spotted wearing a Richard Mille

Riyad Mahrez's Premier League championship weekend delivered more than just a winners' medal — the Algerian winger was photographed celebrating with a Carbon TPT Richard Mille RM055 'Yas Marina' secured to his wrist, one of only 50 examples ever produced and among the most coveted limited editions in contemporary watchmaking.

The Richard Mille RM055 is the ultra-light, skeletonized manual-winding sports reference within the wider RM lineup, built around a baseplate and bridges machined from Carbon TPT — a proprietary material developed by North Thin Ply Technology that layers hundreds of carbon filament sheets at alternating 45-degree angles before resin impregnation. The result is a case material stronger than titanium at a fraction of the weight, with that distinctive dark matte surface shot through with irregular grain patterns unique to every individual piece. The 'Yas Marina' designation references Abu Dhabi's Formula 1 circuit, situating the watch firmly in Richard Mille's motorsport partnership universe. The manually wound calibre CRMT1 inside runs at 21,600 vph, delivers approximately 55 hours of power reserve, and presents its skeletonized architecture — hours, minutes, torque indicator, and power reserve — through a sapphire crystal on both sides of the tonneau case.

For collectors, the RM055 'Yas Marina' occupies a particular tier of difficulty. The edition size of 50 pieces, combined with Richard Mille's tightly controlled boutique allocation system, means the watch never achieved meaningful public availability. Those 50 units were almost certainly pre-allocated to VIP clients and brand partners, making open-market acquisition essentially impossible at launch. The reference has since become a benchmark of just how severely supply can decouple from demand when brand heat, material scarcity, and edition size converge.

Mahrez has long been a confirmed Richard Mille collector, the brand's aesthetic — technically maximalist, unapologetically expensive, favoured across elite football and Formula 1 — aligning naturally with the culture surrounding top-flight Premier League footballers. Winning a fifth league title with Manchester City only amplifies the symbolic weight of the choice.

At a list price of approximately $170,000, the RM055 'Yas Marina' was never an accessible reference. On the current grey market, however, authenticated examples are changing hands in the $650,000 range — a near four-fold appreciation that underscores both the piece's scarcity and the sustained demand for Richard Mille's most limited Carbon TPT productions.