Watch Paparazzi

Athlete Loïck Peyron spotted wearing Richard Mille

French offshore sailing champion Loïck Peyron was recently spotted wearing a Richard Mille RM16 in white gold, reference WG 516.06.91-1 — a watch whose backstory is as compelling as the wrist it sits on. Peyron, whose career reads like a greatest-hits reel of ocean racing records, has long been associated with the kind of high-performance philosophy that Richard Mille made its commercial cornerstone.

The Richard Mille RM16 occupies a pivotal place in the brand's catalogue. Launched in the mid-2000s, it marked Richard Mille's first use of a fully in-house automatic movement, the calibre CRMA1. The skeletonised self-winding movement beats at 28,800 vph, offers approximately 55 hours of power reserve, and features a variable-geometry rotor — a signature RM engineering touch that allows winding efficiency to be tuned to the wearer's activity level. The baseplate and bridges are machined from grade 5 titanium, keeping overall movement weight minimal despite the complexity involved.

The white gold case of reference WG 516.06.91-1 adds considerable material prestige to the equation. Richard Mille's tonneau-shaped case in 18-carat white gold is notoriously labour-intensive to produce given the hardness differential between the alloy and the titanium internal components. Sapphire crystal on both dial side and caseback ensures the skeletonised movement remains fully visible — a deliberate choice that transforms the RM16 into a kinetic display as much as a timekeeping instrument.

For collectors, the RM16 holds genuine historical significance within the Richard Mille lineage. White gold examples represent a relatively small production run, and the reference WG 516.06.91-1 is rarely offered at retail today, making secondary-market appearances noteworthy. The model predates the brand's later hyper-complications and tourbillon-heavy catalogue, giving it a certain purity that resonates with collectors who prize manufacture credibility over spectacle.

Loïck Peyron's affinity for Richard Mille is entirely consistent. The brand has built its ambassador roster around record-breakers and boundary-pushers rather than red-carpet celebrities, and Peyron — holder of transatlantic and round-the-world records — fits that brief precisely. The Richard Mille RM16 in white gold retailed in the UK at approximately £62,000; grey-market values for white gold examples have tracked above that figure in recent years as early RM references attract growing collector attention.