What does Only Watch mean to you?

Only Watch is first and foremost about the pleasure of contributing to the foundation established by Luc Pettavino, who is an extraordinary man*. There are few days in the year when you feel you are needed, but today each of us felt useful. Moreover, it represents an opportunity to create an extraordinary watch while having fun. Since it is a one-of-a-kind model and there are no constraints linked to industrial issues, you don’t feel under the usual pressure when you have to envisage series production. The icing on the cake is that you meet lots of friends and colleagues here, so the whole experience is just wonderful.

How do you go about choosing your partnerships?

I try to ensure there is meaning in everything I undertake in terms of partnerships. When my friend Felipe Massa, a driver for Ferrari, decided to associate with Richard Mille watches, it was not to serve as brand ambassador, but to actually wear my tourbillon watches during races and thus to test their resistance. Contrary to the views of those who predicted a mechanical massacre, the timepieces held up and thus naturally reinforced brand credibility.

The same exceptional approach also applies to our partnership with the Perini Navi shipbuilders. The latter are not particularly well known to the public at large and make only one or two yachts a year – but all of them are legends, like the Faucon Maltais with its three masts that rotate according to the wind. Its architecture is fabulous, it is packed with technological innovations and all its finishing details are hand-crafted. It is in fact very similar to the Richard Mille brand philosophy, based on three main principles: “the best of technology, architecture and watchmaking culture.”

Above and beyond the technical feats involved, what led you to create the Tellurium planetary watch?

I have always loved beautiful objects and the concept behind the planetarium arose well before the creation of the Richard Mille brand, while I was still working for Mauboussin. The first discussions on this topic with my friends Greubel & Forsey date back to 1998. The idea behind the Tellurium consists in merging extraordinary technical complexity with romanticism. This planetarium therefore harmoniously combines an unprecedented level of technical sophistication with a fabulously romantic, dreamlike dimension. Take a closer look at the earth as it is depicted and you will see that it is entirely hand-crafted and enamelled, to stunning effect. It moves among the three-dimensional heavenly bodies in a smoothly coordinated manner by means of an incredibly complex mechanism.

You have injected a fresh vision into watchmaking; what are your views on its current development?

After a long period of demure reserve, watchmaking has recently entered a far more chaotic phase. I am not complaining about it, since in some ways I have made my own modest contribution to paving the way for this trend. Nonetheless, a lot of people have hopped on the bandwagon since then and this will only prove viable if everyone brings along their own share of creativity. One must not fall into the trap of an excessively “me-too” attitude based purely on one-upmanship. Taking the example of my friend François-Paul Journe, he has displayed tremendous innovation and created watches that are immediately identifiable despite retaining a classical appearance. Without wishing to sermonize, I am convinced that each brand really must find its own style.

Your new releases are emerging in rapid-fire succession; can we expect you to keep up the pace for the next ten years?

Definitely! What I love is creating new things. Development is part of the job, but my true passion lies in innovation, novelty and creativity. As I often say, I was frustrated in my previous careers, since I was more involved in figures than in design, and now I find I have to curb my creative zeal rather than nurturing it. Next year you will be seeing some truly amazing surprises.

What is still lacking as far as Richard Mille is concerned?

We are in a sector that tells the time and yet is constantly running behind. From my point of view, I think I’m on the right track and there is nothing really missing – we just have to keep to our chosen course. The brand has excellent fundamentals, the growth is controlled despite the strong creative drive, and I am enjoying myself. Since volume is absolutely not my aim, I have set myself the long-term goal of producing three to four thousand watches a year, while continuing to maintain simultaneous control over growth, ultra-selective distribution and the brand image.