Watch Paparazzi

Royal Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah spotted wearing Richard Mille

The Crown Prince of Brunei, Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah, was recently photographed wearing a Richard Mille RM 59-01 Tourbillon Yohan Blake — a watch so technically singular and so tightly produced that spotting one in the wild borders on the extraordinary. With just 50 pieces ever made and a retail price of $620,000, this is not a watch that circulates casually.

Richard Mille developed the RM 59-01 in collaboration with Jamaican sprint legend Yohan Blake, the 2011 World Champion at 100m and 200m and long-time training partner of Usain Bolt. The watch was conceived to reflect Blake's physical explosive power while pushing the boundaries of case material science. The result is a tonneau-shaped case constructed from a carbon nanotube-injected polymer — a composite material in which carbon nanotubes are dispersed within a polymer matrix to deliver tensile strength and stiffness that rivals metals at a fraction of the mass. It is one of the first applications of this technology in fine watchmaking and remains among the most advanced case constructions Richard Mille has ever commercialized.

Inside the RM 59-01 beats a manually wound tourbillon movement, the RMUL2, built to Richard Mille's exacting tolerances with a variable inertia balance wheel and a free-sprung regulator. The movement architecture prioritizes shock resistance and precision under physical stress — fitting for a timepiece designed around a professional sprinter. The skeletonized dial leaves the tourbillon cage fully exposed, central to the watch's visual identity.

For collectors, the RM 59-01 occupies a specific and respected niche within the Richard Mille athlete edition universe. The carbon nanotube polymer case is genuinely rare within the manufacture's own catalogue — most RM cases in this era relied on titanium, carbon TPT, or NTPT composites. The nanotube variant represents a more experimental, lower-production material direction, which reinforces its desirability among serious RM specialists.

Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah is a well-documented connoisseur of ultra-high-end horology, and his choice of the RM 59-01 signals discernment beyond simple brand loyalty — this is a collector's pick within a collector's brand. On the grey market, examples of the RM 59-01 Yohan Blake command prices that reflect both its extreme rarity and the sustained demand for limited Richard Mille tourbillons among royal and ultra-high-net-worth buyers globally.