What a sapphire case actually costs to make, and why we cannot name this one.
Richard Mille's sapphire cases are the most expensive things in the catalogue for a reason that has nothing to do with decoration. Sapphire is grown as a boule and then machined — slowly, with diamond tooling, because it is close to diamond in hardness. A three-part tonneau case runs to something like a thousand hours on the machine before it is polished, and the reject rate is high. That is why these exist in single figures rather than dozens.
The watch in the photograph is a blue sapphire case over a skeletonised tourbillon with a sculpted element across the movement. We are not able to match it to a catalogued Richard Mille reference, and we would rather say so on the page than attach a number to it that turns out to be wrong.
If this is the kind of watch you are after, the useful conversation is about what you actually want — the sapphire case, the colour, the tourbillon, a sculpted movement — and we will come back with the references that exist and what is realistically findable.
- Sapphire cases are machined from grown boules with diamond tooling
- Roughly a thousand machine hours per case before polishing
- Made in single-figure series, and held rather than traded
- We confirm the exact reference with you before anything is sourced
