Watch Paparazzi

Pilot Romain Grosjean spotted wearing Richard Mille

Romain Grosjean was spotted on duty with the Lotus-Mercedes F1 team wearing what is arguably the most personally relevant timepiece a driver could strap to his wrist: the Richard Mille RM 011 NTPT Lotus F1 Team, reference RM011-NTPT-Lotus-F1-Team — a watch bearing his own name and built around the demands of grand prix competition.

The RM 011 family sits at the core of Richard Mille's motorsport lineage. Launched in 2007, the reference introduced the brand's flyback chronograph with annual calendar — a genuinely unusual complication pairing — housed in the now-iconic tonneau-shaped case. The RM011-NTPT-Lotus-F1-Team variant replaces the more common titanium or red gold case architecture with a shell constructed from NTPT carbon, a filament-wound composite in which ultra-thin plies are laid at rotating 45-degree angles, producing the characteristic rippled grain unique to every individual case. The material registers exceptional rigidity and vibration resistance while keeping the watch well under 40 grams on the wrist. Inside sits the calibre RMAC2, an automatic movement with skeletonised baseplate machined from grade 5 titanium, offering 55-hour power reserve, a variable-geometry rotor, and shock resistance rated to 5,000 Gs — a specification that is not marketing language when your ambassador corners at sustained 4-G loads.

Collector interest in co-signed Richard Mille references is disproportionately strong compared to standard production pieces. The Lotus F1 team livery detailing — rendered in green and black across the dial architecture — ties the watch to a specific, now-defunct constructor, which adds a layer of historical closure that collectors find compelling. Production numbers for team-edition RM 011 variants were tightly controlled, reinforcing scarcity.

Grosjean's relationship with Richard Mille began during his Formula Renault years and deepened into a full ambassador partnership by the time he joined Lotus. The RM011-NTPT-Lotus-F1-Team is the tangible product of that alliance — worn not as a sponsorship obligation but as a watch the driver actively participated in specifying.

At a UK RRP of £105,000, the Richard Mille RM 011 NTPT Lotus F1 Team sits at the serious end of the complications market. On the secondary market, NTPT-cased RM 011 co-signed editions have consistently traded above retail, with collector premiums driven by low availability and the enduring strength of Richard Mille's resale ecosystem.