Richard Mille’s new Sydney boutique represents a turning point for the Australian watch scene
Jamie WeissAs a born and bred Sydneysider, I’ve always been attuned to the fact that Sydney is a wealthy town. Australia’s largest city has long boasted some of the highest property prices in the world, and is home to most of Australia’s wealthiest people, with Porsches and Range Rovers as common as Toyotas on the streets of some suburbs. There’s a lot of money in Sydney, now more than ever, with wealthy expats from Mainland China and around Asia relocating in droves to the Harbour City, joining an already healthy community of local millionaires.
Accordingly, over the last ten years, the luxury shopping scene in Sydney has absolutely exploded – especially when it comes to watches. The number of boutiques clustered around King, Market, Pitt and Castlereagh Streets is simply astonishing, especially when it comes to ultra-high-end watches: Roger Dubuis has a massive showroom on Castlereagh, Franck Muller just reopened a few doors down, A. Lange & Söhne is about to reopen with a three-story spot on King… But few boutique openings have been more anticipated or stand to be as momentous as Richard Mille’s new Sydney spot, which opened its doors earlier this month.
Housed in the ground floor of the lavish Capella Hotel – just a stone’s throw from Circular Quay – this is the high-end watchmaker’s first Australian and Oceanian location. (Previously, the next closest Richard Mille boutique for Aussies was in Singapore.) It’s a real statement of intent from RM, too: at 270 square metres, it’s surprisingly big, with a dedicated sports bar, a “meditation space” that resembles a luxe living room, as well as a central transparent watchmaker’s space, where customers can observe the brand’s complicated creations being serviced.
The sports bar is particularly fun: RM explains that it wants to “echo the convivial spirit of Australian pubs”. While it’s not the sort of place I’d feel comfortable sinking a pint of VB in, I reckon it’ll be a great place to watch a bit of Formula 1 – especially as Richard Mille-supported McLaren driver, Australia’s very own Oscar Piastri, challenges his teammate Lando Norris for the 2025 driver’s title.
What’s striking about the boutique, though, is that there aren’t many watches on display – making the boutique’s size and amenities feel even more luxurious. This won’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s visited a Richard Mille boutique overseas, though. When I visited the brand’s London location on Old Bond Street earlier this year, I found a similarly expansive but horologically sparse experience. This is partly a reflection of how extremely limited and in-demand the brand’s watches are – something that the brand is surprisingly open about.
For the boutique’s opening, we were joined by two members of the Mille family: Amanda Mille, who serves as the Brand and Partnerships Director; and Alexandre Mille, who is the brand’s Commercial Director, who sat down for a panel for local press. Truthfully, these sorts of things can be a bit tedious and solipsistic, but I was very impressed by how friendly, candid and transparent both Alex and Amanda were about their father’s brand.
For instance, Alex revealed that the brand is targeting a production figure of 6,000 watches for 2025 (for comparison, Patek Philippe makes around 58,000 – 60,000 watches a year by most estimates), but they’re unlikely to hit that number, and that they have no real desire (or ability) to drastically increase production beyond that number, either.
“It’s not an objective. It’s what you put inside those 6,000 watches – because you can produce 6,000 of the same watch, and it won’t make sense,” Alex explained.
“For us, creativity is key… Once we reach that 6,000, it’s not like we’ll be able to increase [production by] 100 pieces every year! It’s definitely not possible. So we’ll see probably [stay] around 6,000, and then it will be the fun game that we will play where, inside that 6,000, what are we actually producing?”
For a major watchmaker, 6,000 watches is an extremely small number. Richard Mille is also in the enviable position where it has no problem selling each and every one of those watches it produces every year. Indeed, those who might have thought that a new Sydney boutique means an higher chance of getting one’s hands on a Richard Mille, I’m afraid I might need pour cold water on your hopes: as Amanda and Alex explained, because the brand equally divides its distribution between the Americas, EMEA and Asia (with the exception of Japan, which RM treats as its own market), and Australia will be drawing upon Asia’s allocation, it won’t necessarily be any easier copping an RM in Sydney as it was in Singapore.
So why open a boutique in Australia at all? Well, as Bryan Tan, Chief Operating Officer of Richard Mille Asia, it’s a strategic decision. He explained that many of RM’s clients in Asia are indeed Australians, who have previously been trekking their way out to Singapore or Hong Kong, and Richard Mille wanted to provide a better experience for them locally. It’s why the brand has tried to really localise the Sydney boutique, too, from spaces like the sports bar to using native hardwoods in the boutique’s construction.
“We know we don’t necessarily have watches for sale; there’s scarcity. So at least you entertain [clients] with something different, showing them a different side of the brand,” Alex related.
Amanda agreed: “What’s the point of spending money for, at the end, not creating any relationship with people… We need to create that relationship with people, because it’s also for us the best way to understand how we need to improve ourselves.”
A topic that kept coming up in the panel is family. Amanda and Alex work in the family business, sure, but it’s also how the brand treats its clients. It’s precisely because Richard Mille watches are so inaccessible, and represent such a huge investment from a customer, that the brand wants to repay that for both existing and potential customers by curating amazing spaces and experiences.
This is a concept that’s perhaps slightly alien to the Australian luxury shopping experience. Sure, luxury brands will wine and dine you Down Under, but how many brands have created a space that feels more like a hangout spot and less like a shop? Weirdly, it’s like an ultra-high-end take on what we’re trying to do with our Time+Tide Watch Discovery Studios: provide an alternative, almost familial experience that’s so unlike anything else on the market that’s underpinned by fundamentally good, desirable watchmaking.
I’m not sure what Sydneysiders will make of their new Richard Mille boutique, but it’s a fantastic space that I highly encourage you to check out for yourself if you’re in town. It’s at 1/35-39 Bridge Street, Sydney – find out more here.
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Jamie and the Time+Tide Team
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