Colnago and Richard Mille have announced a limited-edition watch worth nearly $1,000,000 and said to be inspired by Colnago's "technical, aesthetic and sporting language".
The RM 64-01 Tourbillon Colnago will be limited to 50 pieces and costs 800,000 Swiss francs (plus taxes...) – that's $989,552 or £747,168 at today's conversion rates.
Swiss luxury watchmaker Richard Mille has been a partner of Tadej Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG since 2021, and the four-time Tour de France winner wore a Richard Mille RM 67-02 at this year's Paris-Roubaix (even in Roubaix's famous post-race showers, where photographers are always on hand to snap away...).
However, Colnago has told BikeRadar that Pogačar won't wear the new timepiece at the Tour de France, with the bike brand citing 'personal safety' concerns over having nearly a million dollars strapped to the Slovenian's wrist.
The RM 64-01 Tourbillon Colnago "was conceived as a tribute to the architecture of a Colnago bicycle", according to the Italian brand.
The components of the watch are said to have been arranged so that it "evokes [the] tubes, geometries and drivetrain" of a bike, while the "star-shaped sections of the bridges are inspired by the renowned Gilco tubes, one of the most recognisable design signatures in Colnago’s history".
The Gilco design was used on the iconic Colnago Master, with its unique star-shaped tubing.
Other nods to Colnago include "micro-lugs" inspired by the Cambiago-based company's C-Series bikes, and a white, blue and gold finish described as being representative of "the brand’s most exclusive creations from the recent past". Colnago's ace of clubs logo features on the watch's crown.
If this were WatchRadar, not BikeRadar, we'd also tell you it has a manual-winding tourbillon mechanism and titanium bridges. The case is made from Azure Blue Quartz TPT and has details in 5N red gold.
What we do know is this is Richard Mille's latest – and surely most expensive, given a price that can't even be described as eye-watering – attempt to earn a place in the pro cycling conversation.
As well as Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel wore a Richard Mille RM 67-02 at Paris-Roubaix, while Julian Alaphilippe has also worn the company's watches, including an RM 67-02 in 2020.
Mark Cavendish wore an RM 011 Felipe Massa at the Tour de France, and the Manx Missile had two Richard Mille watches, worth a reported £400,000 and £350,000, stolen during an armed robbery at his Essex home in November 2021. Both watches are still missing.
