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singerSpotted November 2022

Singer Pharrell William spotted wearing a Richard Mille

singer Pharrell William spotted wearing a Richard Mille RM55
Who & what: Richard Mille RM55 Bubba Watson White NTPT Carbon Tourbillon – Pharrell Williams Spotted

Pharrell Williams, the Grammy-winning producer and Louis Vuitton Men's Creative Director, was spotted wearing a Richard Mille RM55 Bubba Watson — a tourbillon-equipped sports watch that sits at the intersection of aerospace engineering and haute horlogerie. For a figure whose personal style has long functioned as cultural currency, the choice of the RM55 is entirely consistent with a collector who has worn Richard Mille pieces across red carpets, music videos, and street appearances for well over a decade.

The Richard Mille RM55 Bubba Watson debuted in 2012 as a collaboration with the American professional golfer known for his unorthodox, self-taught swing. The brief to Richard Mille's engineers was specific: build a watch capable of surviving repeated impacts exceeding 1,500 g's — the kind of shock generated at the moment a club face meets a ball. The answer was a skeletonized manual-winding tourbillon movement, caliber RM55, housed in a tonneau-shaped case constructed from white NTPT carbon. NTPT — North Thin Ply Technology — layers carbon filaments at 45-degree angles in plies just 30 microns thick, then cures them under heat and pressure. The result is a case that weighs almost nothing and is harder than titanium by weight.

The movement itself runs at 21,600 vph, offers a 48-hour power reserve, and features a variable geometry rotor system adapted for the wearer's dominant wrist. A torque indicator and power reserve display are integrated into the skeletonized dial, giving the RM55 a technical readability that matches its engineering pedigree. Case dimensions measure approximately 49.94 x 42.28 mm — large, bold, and unmistakable on the wrist.

Among Richard Mille collectors, the RM55 carries serious weight. The white NTPT carbon variant is particularly sought after; the material's natural marbling means no two cases are identical, making each piece genuinely unique. Production volumes are tightly controlled, and the watch rarely surfaces on the secondary market in pristine condition.

At a UK retail price of approximately £61,000 — translating to roughly $76,000 USD — the RM55 Bubba Watson is priced firmly within Richard Mille's entry tier for tourbillon complications, which itself tells you something about the brand's positioning. On the grey market, well-documented examples have traded between $85,000 and $110,000 depending on condition and provenance. Pharrell's wrist is already one of the watch world's most valuable billboards.

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