Pharrell Williams wears the world’s finest watch, a Richard Mille made with Ferrari

Text by Ana Franco.

The creative has done it again: he has managed to be on everyone’s lips after the Louis Vuitton fashion show that took place at the Paris Men’s Fashion Week, where he presented his proposals for the Autumn/Winter 2024 season. And it wasn’t just fringe, boots, cowhair and denim from the American Wild West that he brought to the catwalk. Williams came out at the end of the show with a cowboy hat and a watch that left the audience stunned.

Actually, it’s not the first time he’s worn it. He wore it when he made his debut as creative director of LV‘s menswear collections last June. And he already stunned people then, because it is a rare and extraordinary model in equal parts. As much as Pharrell himself, a self-confessed watch lover.

It is nothing less than the world’s thinnest mechanical watch, the RM UP-01 Ferrari, with a world record thickness of 1.75 mm and light as wind. It is the titanium model launched by Richard Mille (the brand that has been on Rafael Nadal‘s wrist for two years) in July 2022, just three months after Bulgari pushed the limits of slimness by delivering a mechanical design 1.8 mm thick.

It was born out of the collaboration between Richard Mille and Ferrari, hence the Prancing Horse, the symbol of the Italian sports car firm. And its barrel shape is characteristic of Richard Mille‘s timekeeping instruments, although in this case it is worn horizontally.

To bring it to life, the watchmaker assembled the skeletonised movement, the RMUP-01 calibre, which provides the hours, minutes and seconds and offers a power reserve of 45 hours, in the case itself (measuring 51 x 39 mm). The time is displayed on the upper half of the dial, in the centre.

Pharrell Williams and Richard Mille had already revolutionised watchmaking in 2020, when they worked together on a watch that showed on its dial the Earth as seen from Mars, specifically from the helmet of an astronaut in which the planet was reflected. The reference RM52-05 was a limited edition of 30 pieces priced at around 900,000 euros.

Of course, the RM UP-01 Ferrari, limited to 150 units, far exceeds this, as it is commensurate with the technical vigour it entails: it costs 1.8 million euros.