Mutaz Essa Barshim — watch collection

About Mutaz Essa Barshim’s watch collection

Mutaz Essa Barshim is a Qatari track and field athlete widely regarded as the greatest high jumper of his generation. Born in Doha in 1991, he has claimed multiple World Championship titles, three Olympic medals, and a Diamond League record that remained unbroken for years. His name became known far beyond the athletics world at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, when he and Italian jumper Gianmarco Tamberi chose to share the gold medal rather than compete in a jump-off — a moment that resonated globally and underlined his character as much as his athletic ability. Barshim has been a central figure in putting Qatari sport on the world map, and at his peak he has cleared 2.43 metres, the third-highest jump in history.

The Mutaz Essa Barshim watch collection is built firmly around Richard Mille, the Franco-Swiss brand that has made elite sport its natural territory. Barshim has been spotted wearing at least eight distinct references, and the most technically demanding of these is the Richard Mille UP-01 Ferrari, a watch developed in close partnership with Scuderia Ferrari and widely considered one of the most complex ultra-thin movements ever produced. The UP-01 sits just 1.75 mm thick at the movement level — a feat of miniaturised engineering that mirrors the marginal gains athletes like Barshim pursue in their own discipline. The choice is less about luxury signalling and more about a genuine alignment with engineering ambition.

Looking across his collection, Barshim gravitates toward Richard Mille references that carry a genuine technical or sporting narrative rather than simply a precious-metal price tag. The brand's use of Carbon TPT, titanium, and skeletonised architecture appeals to someone who understands the relationship between reduced weight and peak performance. For a high jumper whose entire career depends on the physics of force and lift, wearing a watch that treats material science as seriously as he treats his own training is a coherent and consistent choice.