What does the Rallye des Princesses represent for you?
I would say that, first of all, it's definitely a girl's trip. I think all of us should do something like this, at least once a year. Our lives are all so crazy, so it is moments like this that can really change your life. We have had so many ladies taking part in the rally over the years and they often come back to us saying, “You can’t even begin to imagine how the rally changed my life.”.
You spend your days laughing, but at the same time, you are learning so much about yourself. There is so much to think about on a rally that you only have time to take care of yourself. It is also an experience where you have to push yourself, so I think that everyone should have moments like these; they give you so much energy for the rest of the year.
What have you learned the most about yourself?
I have found a competitive side to myself that I didn’t know existed. Usually, on the first day, you are very frustrated because you don't manage to do everything properly, but then you start to get into it and by the end of the week, you end up being super competitive.
Would you like to win?
I would love to. I've been lucky enough to do this rally with so many amazing people. I've done it with clients, with journalists, with one of my very good friends Margot Laffite, and last year I did it with my daughter. Every moment is so special. It doesn't happen very often that you get to spend over eight hours per day with someone – with no time for phone calls or emails – so this takes you back to a past time when you took time for yourself, which is beautiful.
Richard Mille has always supported female talent. Why is this so important to you and the brand?
We don’t support women just because it is the right thing to do, we do it because we love doing it. Most of the time these connections happen because you end up meeting fabulous women who have amazing projects. Often enough, brands aren’t interested in supporting them, which is a shame. So, when we meet people with the potential to be the very best at their disciplines, and who cannot do it because they don't have the right support or the right tools, that's where we feel their frustration and are happy to follow up on that.
We have also always worked with athletes to test our watches and give us feedback. So now that our female collection is growing, we also need to have feedback from the ladies too.
When your father started the brand, partnerships were always the result of encounters that became friendships. Is that still the case?
You know, I can tell you honestly that when my father asked me to take care of the partners, I was like, “Dad, we should stop having more people because we already have a big family and if we want to take care of them properly, it takes a lot of time.”. Now, he just laughs at me when I tell him about another person I have met and want to work with!
This is really the beauty of the way we work. It is always a feeling. It is probably the reason why we have so many partners that are retired or close to retirement too; our partners are for life. Take Felipe Massa, for example, who was our first partner in 2006, he agreed to drive with a watch on his wrist. Then there is Yuliya Levchenko who is high jumping with her watch. If her timepiece touches the bar, it can ruin a year of training. Our partners believe in us, so we are always there for each other. Each one of them is incredibly inspiring and motivates us to always go further.
When you look to the future of Richard Mille, where would you like to see it go?
There's no big plan. The brand is so much like us and the way that we want it to be that we will continue to work really hard to push on improving everything, all while respecting the values that the brand represents.
When you know the story about the brand and how my father started at 50 years old – when he actually had a very good position and could have just continued until retirement – you don’t want to disappoint him. He took so many risks to do what he had in his heart, not to mention all the people who trusted in him, so you don’t want to disappoint any of them either, that’s the beauty of it.
Is it a lot of pressure for you?
Of course, but it’s a good kind of pressure and it makes you ask the right questions so you stay on the right track.
