There is something wonderfully predictable about sport and luxury. Put enough cameras around a cricket ground, add a few celebrities in the stands, and sooner or later someone will turn up wearing a watch worth more than a perfectly respectable apartment. Because sport, especially something as gloriously theatrical as the Indian Premier League, is no longer just about cricket. It is fashion, status, performance, and a quiet competition over who can make effortless luxury look the most convincing. At a recent IPL match, all eyes briefly shifted from the boundary rope to Sakshi Dhoni, who was spotted wearing the extraordinary Richard Mille RM 67-02 Automatic Winding Extra Flat, a watch so light, so technical, and so unapologetically extravagant that it practically deserves its own highlight reel.
The RM 67-02 is not a watch that politely sits on the wrist. It is a statement, a mechanical flex disguised as sportswear. Weighing a barely believable 32 grams, it is lighter than most people’s house keys and somehow costs around $295,000, which translates to roughly Rs. 2.85 crore. At that point, it is less of a watch purchase and more of a philosophical decision. The bold colour palette of the Richard Mille RM 67-02 is not merely an aesthetic choice, it carries the spirit of South Africa itself. Created in collaboration with Wayde van Niekerk, the watch draws direct inspiration from the vibrant colours of the South African flag, reflected through its striking green strap and dynamic case accents. It is a visual tribute to speed, national pride, and athletic excellence, transforming the watch into more than a performance machine, it becomes a wearable symbol of identity and achievement.
This remarkable lightness comes from Richard Mille’s obsession with materials that sound as though they belong in Formula One rather than fine watchmaking. The case is built using Quartz TPT® and Carbon TPT®, paired with grade 5 titanium and the lightest elastic wristband the brand has ever created. The result is a case measuring 38.7 x 47.5 mm that feels almost suspiciously weightless on the wrist, despite carrying the engineering complexity of a miniature racing machine. And that is the thing about Richard Mille. They do not really make watches. They make mechanical arguments.
Inside sits the automatic calibre CRMA7, a skeletonised movement displaying hours and minutes with the sort of visual drama normally reserved for concept cars at motor shows. The baseplate is crafted from grade 5 titanium with black DLC treatment, chosen for its extraordinary rigidity and the precise flatness needed for flawless gear train function. The bridges, also in grade 5 titanium with grey DLC treatment, are satin finished, microblasted, and bevelled by hand. In simpler terms, this is not mass production. This is obsessive detail bordering on engineering madness.
The skeletonised baseplate and bridges underwent separate and extensive validation tests to ensure they could survive serious strength requirements, because if one is going to wear something this expensive to a cricket match, it might as well be built like a fighter jet. The movement is powered by a rotor made of Carbon TPT® and white gold, working alongside the OneWay® winding system with ceramic ball bearings. This allows the barrel to wind efficiently while maintaining the ultra-flat profile that defines the RM 67-02. There is also a healthy 50-hour power reserve, meaning it can rest over the weekend and still be ready for Monday, which is rather more reliable than most people.
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Visually, the skeletonised dial is pure Richard Mille theatre. No numerals, no unnecessary clutter, just a sharp architectural display that exposes the movement like a mechanical x-ray. The dial itself is machined from a sheet of titanium only four tenths of a millimetre thick, treated with black DLC coating and painted by hand. Every line echoes the movement beneath it, creating a design language that feels less like traditional horology and more like industrial sculpture.
Then there is the Carbon TPT® and Quartz TPT®, materials with a remarkable damascene appearance that look almost alive under light. These are created by layering ultra-thin filaments of silica and carbon, each no thicker than 45 microns, saturated in specially developed resins. Each layer is positioned at a 45-degree angle from the last, then heated to 120 degrees Celsius under six bars of pressure before being machined with CNC precision. Frankly, it sounds like the sort of process used to build satellites, which is probably why Richard Mille owners enjoy explaining it at dinner parties.
The watch is also water resistant to 30 metres, secured with two Nitrile O-ring seals and assembled using 12 spline screws in grade 5 titanium with stainless steel washers. Even the fastening sounds expensive. Finished with a green textile strap, original box and papers, and that unmistakable Richard Mille presence, the RM 67-02 is as much about lifestyle as it is about timekeeping. It belongs to a world where watches are not accessories but declarations. And seeing Sakshi Dhoni wearing one courtside at the IPL makes perfect sense. Because in modern sport, performance is not limited to the pitch. Sometimes, the real headline is sitting quietly in the stands, wrapped around a wrist, weighing just 32 grams and stealing the entire show.
