Watch Paparazzi

Footballer Jamie Vardy spotted wearing Richard Mille

Jamie Vardy, Leicester City's prolific striker and one of English football's great underdog stories, was recently spotted wearing what is unquestionably one of the most exclusive wristwatches on the planet: the Richard Mille RM 17-01 Tourbillon in Black NTPT carbon, a piece limited to just 10 examples globally.

The RM 17-01 sits at the absolute apex of Richard Mille's catalog. Its case is fabricated from NTPT carbon — North Thin Ply Technology — a material originally developed for Formula 1 and America's Cup yacht construction. NTPT laminates hundreds of carbon-fiber plies at alternating angles under heat and pressure, producing a composite with a distinctive rippled surface pattern that is structurally unique on every single case. The result is a material harder and lighter than titanium, with each watch displaying its own unrepeatable grain. The Black NTPT variant forgoes the usual reddish-brown carbon aesthetic for a deeper, near-matte black tone that makes the piece look almost like a precision instrument rather than a luxury object — which, of course, it is.

The movement powering the RM 17-01 is a manually wound tourbillon caliber developed to Richard Mille's exacting tolerances, featuring a baseplate and bridges in grade-5 titanium, skeletonized to reduce inertia and showcase the mechanism. Shock resistance, a hallmark of the RM architecture, is engineered directly into the movement architecture rather than added as an afterthought — essential for an active sportsman.

With production limited to 10 pieces, the RM 17-01 in Black NTPT is less a watch than a collector artifact. Pieces of this rarity rarely appear on the secondary market, and when they do, they command significant premiums over an already extraordinary list price. For context, the UK list price sits at £470,000 — positioning this firmly among the most expensive watches in active production.

Vardy's watch collection has long reflected his rise from non-league football to Premier League icon. Choosing the RM 17-01 — a watch worn by a maximum of nine other people on earth — is consistent with that trajectory. Richard Mille's association with elite sport makes this pairing feel entirely natural.