Watch Paparazzi

Politician Jean Todt spotted wearing Richard Mille

Jean Todt, the former President of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile and the man who orchestrated Scuderia Ferrari's dominant early-2000s Formula One dynasty, was recently spotted wearing one of the most architecturally audacious wristwatches ever produced: the Richard Mille RM 012 in Platinum.

Introduced in 2006, the Richard Mille RM 012 represents a genuine engineering milestone. For the first time in watchmaking history, the movement's baseplate and bridges were constructed not from traditional plate stock but from a three-dimensional lattice of interlocking steel and titanium tubes. The result is a skeletonized architecture that looks closer to a suspension bridge than a watch caliber. The manually wound movement offers hours, minutes, seconds, and a torque indicator — functional priorities consistent with Richard Mille's motorsport-informed philosophy. The case itself is executed in platinum, adding considerable heft and precious-metal gravitas to an already technically extreme object.

The production numbers underline just how exceptional this reference is. Richard Mille released only 30 examples of the RM 012 in platinum, alongside a single unique piece cased in titanium. With an original retail price of $525,000 at launch, the RM 012 was never conceived for the mass market. It was a proof-of-concept, a statement piece, and a collector's object simultaneously — the kind of watch that appears at auction with catalogues dedicated to explaining its construction rather than merely its provenance.

For Jean Todt, the Richard Mille connection carries more than casual resonance. Richard Mille's partnership with Ferrari — and by extension with the culture Todt helped define during his tenure as Ferrari's sporting director — made the brand's early identity inseparable from Formula One engineering values. Todt's years at Maranello, followed by a decade steering global motorsport governance at the FIA, make him a natural custodian of a watch that treats mechanical engineering as art.

On the secondary market, surviving examples of the Richard Mille RM 012 in Platinum command significant premiums when they surface at all. With only 30 pieces in existence, transactions are largely private, and auction appearances are rare events. The RM 012 remains one of the most technically referenced pieces in the brand's back catalogue — studied by collectors and engineers alike.