zelin0802 / May 9, 2023

Richard Mille has close ties to many of the world’s top athletes. With the 2017 World Athletics Championships set to take place in London in early August, Richard Mille has announced a special pair of watches for its two newest endorsers, Olympic medalists Mutaz Essa Barshim and Wayde van Niekerk. These new watches were called the Richard Mille RM 67-02 High Jump and RM 67-02 Sprint and were used by the athletes in their respective events.

Before talking about watches, it is necessary to talk about Richard Mille’s latest image ambassador. Mutaz Essa Barshim is a high jumper in Qatar. She currently holds the national high jump record and the Asian record with the best result of 2.43 meters. He won a silver medal at the 2016 Olympics. On the other hand, Wayde van Niekerk from South Africa is the current 400m world record holder, world champion and Olympic champion. He also holds the world best time in the 300m. Not only that, but he is also the only sprinter in history to run 100 meters in less than 10 seconds, 200 meters in less than 20 seconds, 300 meters in less than 31 seconds, and 400 meters in less than 44 seconds.

Impressive sportsman for sure, but certainly also impressive is the new Richard Mille RM 67-02 Sprint and High Jump watch. The RM 67-02 is based on the earlier Richard Mille RM 67-01 (hands-on here), and is arguably the sportier version. The two RM 67-02 watches are powered by the same movement as the RM 67-01, but have different cases designed for the two athletes.

The two Richard Mille RM 67-02 watches weigh just 32 grams each, making them the lightest automatic watches Richard Mille has ever produced. This is thanks to the ultra-light materials used throughout the watch. The brightly colored top and back sections of the case are made of ultra-light yet strong quartz TPT, as we’ve seen in watches before, such as Rafael Nadal’s RM 35-02 watch, while the middle of the case is made of carbon TPT. But that’s not all. The screws securing the case are made of grade 5 titanium, as are the baseplate and bridges used in the movement.

It also helps that the RM 67-02 has a rather small case (at least for a Richard Mille). Case diameter is 38.7mm and lug-to-lug is 47.5mm. At just 7.8 mm thick, it is one of the thinnest Richard Mille watches. Water resistance is only 30 meters, so it should be able to withstand sweaty athletes — if not more liquid than that.

The two watches are practically identical, just in different colors – although they look more like flavors of ice cream – to represent the flag of the athlete’s country. Designed for Wayne van Niekerk, the Richard Mille RM 67-02 Sprint is decorated in the colors of the South African flag and has a bright green case with yellow accents. On the other hand, the Richard Mille RM 67-02 High Jump for Mutaz Essa Barshim is decorated in the colors of the Qatari flag and comes with a crimson case and white strap.

Powering both watches is the CRMA7 movement, a skeletonized self-winding movement made primarily of titanium. The rotor is made of Carbon TPT to save weight, but the ends are made of platinum for efficient winding. The movement has a very technical and somewhat industrial look, but in reality it has micro-blasted grooves and chamfers, a gray and black plasma treatment of the baseplate and bridges, circular finishing on the wheels, and more finishing touches. Processing Richard Mille is something to look forward to.

One of the interesting things about Richard Mille’s collaborations with top athletes is that, as in the case of the famous Rafael Nadal, part of the deal is wearing the watches during actual sporting events, which puts them through a lot of pain. Common durability tests. This tradition is all the more remarkable considering the average price of a Richard Mille watch, and these two new watches continue that tradition. The overall shape is bright and assertive, but that’s where the brand’s many watches shine, and you can’t deny the impressive specs – 32g for an automatic watch is pretty impressive.