Athlete Yohan Blake spotted wearing a Richard Mille

Yohan Blake, the Jamaican sprinter who clocked 9.69 seconds in the 100m and remains one of the fastest humans ever recorded, was recently spotted wearing the Richard Mille RM61-01 Yohan Blake Limited Edition — the watch Richard Mille developed in direct collaboration with the athlete himself. With only 100 examples produced worldwide, seeing the piece on the wrist it was designed for carries genuine significance.

The Richard Mille RM61-01 is built around an in-house manual-winding tourbillon movement, the RMAC3, offering approximately 70 hours of power reserve. The baseplate and bridges are fashioned from grade 5 titanium and Carbon TPT — Richard Mille's signature layered carbon composite, constructed from hundreds of thin carbon fiber plies oriented at 45-degree angles for maximum resistance to deformation. The skeletonized architecture is not merely aesthetic; it reduces movement mass to withstand shocks and vibrations consistent with sprint biomechanics, validated against the physical demands Blake places on equipment during competition and training.

The RM61-01 Yohan Blake sits within Richard Mille's athlete-collaboration lineage alongside pieces dedicated to Rafael Nadal and Felipe Massa — commissions that go beyond branding exercises into functional engineering briefs. The 100-piece production ceiling places the RM61-01 firmly in ultra-limited tourbillon territory, comparable to the scarcest references in the broader RM catalog. Serious collectors note that named athlete editions with sub-100 or exactly 100-unit runs consistently outperform standard references on the secondary market, particularly when the collaborating athlete maintains active relevance.

Blake's relationship with Richard Mille predates this reference, making him one of the brand's longest-standing sporting ambassadors from the track-and-field world. The decision to produce a named, numbered edition — rather than a standard ambassador-endorsed piece — reflects genuine brand equity on both sides. Blake wearing the RM61-01 in an informal setting underscores that this is not a shelf piece for him.

At a UK retail of approximately £87,000, the Richard Mille RM61-01 Yohan Blake Limited Edition commands a substantial premium even within RM's own lineup. On the grey market, ultra-limited tourbillon editions from Richard Mille's athlete series routinely trade above retail, and with only 100 units ever made, secondary market availability remains extremely tight. Collectors tracking this reference should expect pricing well north of list when examples surface.