Royal Darussalam spotted wearing a Richard Mille

The wrist of Crown Prince Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah of Brunei is rarely spotted without serious horological hardware, but his recent sighting wearing the Richard Mille RM 38-01 Tourbillon G-Sensor Quartz TPT raises the bar even by the standards of the Brunei royal family. With a UK list price of £620,000 and a global production run capped at 50 pieces, this is a watch that most collectors will never see in the metal, let alone on the wrist.

The RM 38-01 was developed in close collaboration with polo player Adriano Lemme and represents Richard Mille's most sport-specific tourbillon to date. At its core sits the manual-winding calibre RM38-01, a skeletonised baseplate construction in grade 5 titanium and aluminium featuring a tourbillon escapement paired with a functional G-sensor — a mechanical accelerometer that measures lateral G-forces generated during the swing of a polo mallet. The G-sensor display sits at 12 o'clock, providing real-time readout of forces that can spike to 4G or beyond during a hard shot. Power reserve runs to approximately 72 hours. It is engineering for a specific athletic purpose, not engineering for its own sake.

The case is where the RM 38-01 becomes visually distinctive. Quartz TPT — Thin Ply Technology — is a composite material produced by layering silica filaments impregnated with resin at precisely controlled angles, then cured under high pressure. Each slab produces a unique wood-grain-like surface pattern, meaning no two cases are identical. Combined with the 50-piece limitation, the RM 38-01 sits among the most collectible references in the entire Richard Mille catalogue, cited regularly alongside the RM 56-02 and RM 27 series as a cornerstone of any serious RM holding.

The Brunei royal family has long been associated with hyper-exclusive timepieces. The late Sultan's collection alone is rumoured to number in the thousands, and the Crown Prince has demonstrated his own discerning taste across both Richard Mille and independent watchmaking. Wearing an RM 38-01 is entirely consistent with that pedigree — this is a watch that demands context to appreciate fully.

On the secondary market, examples of the Richard Mille RM 38-01 Tourbillon G-Sensor Quartz TPT command significant premiums over the already stratospheric retail, with auction and dealer asking prices regularly exceeding £750,000 to £900,000 depending on condition and provenance. At 50 pieces globally, liquidity is almost non-existent — when one surfaces, it moves quickly.