During football giant Lionel Messi’s recent visit to India, Anant Ambani gifted him an extremely rare RM 003-V2 GMT Tourbillon ‘Asia Edition’, priced at approximately $1.1 million (₹9,92,43,100), at Vantara. The watch is said to be a limited edition, with only 12 pieces available worldwide.

The Ambani scion himself wore one of the most exclusive Richard Mille watches ever produced, the Piece Unique RM 056 Sapphire Tourbillon.

About the RM 003-V2 GMT Tourbillon “Asia Edition” watch.

The watch features a manual winding tourbillon movement with hours, minutes, dual time zone indicator, function selector, power reserve and torque indicators, along with a black carbon case, skeleton dial and titanium base plate.

It has a 38mm tripartite case made from Carbon TPT (Thin Ply Technology), a material originally developed for aerospace and Formula 1 racing.

The RM 003 marked the next stage after the RM 002, introducing a second time zone to the tourbillon movement. Its innovative sapphire disc makes the black hour numerals appear to “light up” on a white section at 3 o’clock. This concept later appeared on other Richard Mille models, with the time zone adjustable via a pusher at 9 o’clock.

In addition, the tourbillon movement is designed to counteract the effects of gravity on the accuracy of the watch. The manual winding movement features a torque indicator between 1 and 2 o’clock to monitor mainspring tension and a power reserve indicator at 10:30 showing up to 70 hours.

Similar to a car gearbox, a push button on the crown of the watch allows the wearer to switch between W (winding), N (neutral) and H (manual adjustment) modes.

Other celebrities who own the watch

Some other personalities known to own this ultra-rare and limited timepiece include Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah, Formula 1 driver Mick Schumacher, former FIA president and Ferrari team principal Jean Todt, Crown Prince of Johor Tunku Ismail Ibni Sultan Ibrahim and renowned watchmaker Kari Voutilainen.

($1 = ₹90.26 today)