Lewis Hamilton’s Richard Mille Watch Is Packed with Diamonds—and F1 Engineering

Lewis Hamilton is having quite the moment. At the opening-night gala for Los Angeles’s new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, the Formula 1 driver arrived wearing a Richard Mille that is about as understated as you’d expect from a watch that costs as much as a mansion.

It was the Richard Mille RM 17-01 Tourbillon in rose gold, finished with the brand’s “snow setting” of diamonds. Rather than arranging the stones in a uniform grid, Richard Mille’s jewelers individually set diamonds of different sizes across the tonneau-shaped case, creating the irregular, glittering effect that gives the watch its snowy name. Each piece, then, is unique.

RICHARD MILLE

And this is not simply a diamond-encrusted flex. Beneath all that sparkle sits the manually wound RM17-01 tourbillon caliber, with hours, minutes, a power-reserve indicator, and a function indicator. The movement is built around a skeletonized grade 5 titanium baseplate and bridges, measures just 4.65mm thick, and runs at 21,600 vibrations per hour. Its power reserve is around 70 hours.

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The tourbillon itself sits at six o’clock, while the power-reserve indicator appears at two o’clock. At four o’clock, the function indicator works a little like a car’s gearbox, showing whether the crown is set to winding, neutral, or hand-setting mode. It is a suitably technical centerpiece for a driver whose watch collection is almost as closely scrutinized as his wardrobe.

Richard Mille describes the RM 17-01 as a meeting point between its watchmaking and engineering philosophies, even drawing a comparison between the development of its movement and the design of a Formula 1 car. The watch is also water-resistant to 50 meters and uses a torque-limiting crown designed to prevent accidental overwinding.

As for the price? Richard Mille does not publish a retail price for the RM 17-01 on its website, and even secondary-market examples are often marked “price on request.” But we did find one RM 17-01 recently that’s listed at more than $1.1 million.

For Hamilton, who has long made watches part of his off-track uniform, it is another extravagant addition to the collection. And if you were looking for something subtle to wear to a museum opening, well, this probably isn’t it.