Happy birthday Michelle! In lieu of the Hollywood star who turned 61 this week, we take a look at Michelle’s best looks in recent years – along with all the Millies on her wrist.
Michelle Yeoh is everywhere. And has been (almost, practically) everything, from playing a Bond girl to being her own stuntwoman, where her subsequent success has accredited her as one of the best action heroines of all time. The Malaysian-born starlet is still at it, with her recent appearances in film and television including Disney+’s
American Born Chinese and
The Witcher: Blood Origin on Netflix.
The Hollywood star recently got married to her long-time partner, former Formula 1
Scuderia Ferrari team principal and president of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), Jean Todt. The intimate wedding, held in Geneva, Switzerland, was attended by friends and family, including ex-
Ferrari Formula One driver Felipe Massa. Yeoh donned a surrealist-inspired dress by Schiaparelli for the special occasion, albeit –
gasp – nary a
Richard Mille on her wrist.
Michelle Yeoh and her husband Jean Todt at the 2023 Academy Awards
Yeoh’s long-time affinity with Richard Mille watches stemmed from Todt’s friendship with Mille, whose encounter with Yeoh led to their first jewellery watch collaborations, and then some. In 2011, Richard Mille and Yeoh collaborated to create the
RM 051 and
RM 051 Phoenix Tourbillon, the latter paying possible homage to Ang Lee’s martial arts film
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), the latter for which Yeoh was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
Richard Mille RM 051 Phoenix Tourbillon
“The first present I ever received from my dad was a watch,” said Yeoh. “And then the first significant thing I ever bought myself was a watch, and my love grew from there. A watch isn’t just about telling the time. I don’t agree that women should only wear small watches.”
We round up the best of Yeoh’s glamorous looks on the red carpet, and all the Richard Milles she’s rocked them with.
2023 Cannes Film Festival
Michelle Yeoh at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival wearing the RM 037 Black Ceramic
Yeoh wore Balenciaga Couture to the red carpet for the screening of ‘Firebrand’ at the
Cannes Film Festival 2023, where she was also honoured as the recipient of the
2023 Women in Motion Award. Here, she strapped an
RM 037 Black Ceramic strapped over her velvet black opera glove. The watch, available in white and black ceramic, gold, and carbon TPT®, displays an oversized date at 12 o’clock, and runs on the Calibre CRMA1 providing up to 50 hours of power reserve. The bridges and baseplate, which are visible through both sides, are crafted in grade 5 titanium.
Michelle Yeoh at the 2023 Met Gala wearing the RM 07-01
In fulfilling this year’s Met Gala theme “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty”, Yeoh goes for gold (well, black and white), with her layered Lagerfeld tuxedo gown and an
RM 07-01. The diamanté timepiece, set with snow-set diamonds, was finished with a glossy black strap. Richard Mille
introduced snow setting to its RM 07-01 and 037 models a couple of years ago, where varying diameters of diamonds between 0.5 to 1.6 millimeters fit snugly to within a micron’s precision, while maintaining the illusion of a random pattern. The RM07-01 runs on the in-house designed CRMA2 calibre, a skeletonised automatic movement developed specifically for this model with a variable-geometry rotor and a power reserve of 50 hours.
Michelle Yeoh at the 95th Academy Awards wearing a custom diamond-set RM 07-02
In an ethereal vision in white, Yeoh wore a full-length Dior gown, Moussaieff jewellery and a custom diamond-set
RM 07-02. Yeoh took home the award for Best Actress for
Everything Everywhere All at Once (EEAAO), making her the first Asian woman to win a lead-actress Oscar in the awards show’s 95-year history. At the Vanity Fair Oscars Party, Yeoh wore Giorgio Armani, with her new Oscars trophy in hand.
The 07-02 takes ‘gem-setting’ to a different level, comprising a case fashioned in sapphire crystal — a result of forty days of machining and finishing. 12 diamond-lined indices outline the crystal case, a feat made possible with micro lasers and hand-polished gold prongs.
2023 Screen Actors Guild Awards
Michelle Yeoh at the 2023 Screen Actors Guild Awards wearing the RM 07-01 ‘Intergalactic’
Schiaparelli is the name of the game. The actress wore a fitted black strapless number textured with gold sequins. Along with Moussaieff high jewelry, nothing but a bejewelled
RM 07-01 ‘Intergalactic’ was strapped on her wrist. Yeoh made history at this year’s SAGs, taking home the Best Actress trophy, becoming the first Asian woman to win the award. She also took home a second award alongside the
EEAAO cast, who won Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
Michelle Yeoh at the 2023 BAFTA Film Awards wearing a diamond pavé RM 037
Yeoh wore a blush-pink blazer with a built-in cape and matching pants by Dior at the 76th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs), where she was nominated for the award for Leading Actress for her performance in
Everything Everywhere All At Once. Her full-diamond
RM 037 complemented her pink suite of Moussaieff jewellery that comprised rubies and pink sapphires.
95th Annual Oscar Nominees Luncheon
Michelle Yeoh at the 95th Annual Oscar Nominees Luncheon wearing the RM 016 Extra Flat Titalyt®
Yeoh was dressed in a full Chanel ensemble, sporting a tweed suit and fine jewellery, with the Titalyt-treated grade 5 titanium
RM 016 Extra Flat on her wrist. Of course, by now Richard Mille has made
flatter watches than this, but the debut of the RM 016 in 2007, a flat, rectangular watch that’s a deviation of the Richard Mille people thought they knew, was the brand’s chance at a ‘stylistic exercise’, as they called it.
The RM 016 got the Titalyt® treatment in 2009, which is easily distinguished by its colour via a titanium oxidation process using electro-plasma. This increases the hardness of the metal and therefore its capacity to withstand friction, wear and corrosion, making it just as good as AMS 2488D aerospace material norms.
2022 Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Gala
Michelle Yeoh at the 2019 BAFTA Film Awards wearing the RM 27-01 ‘Rafael Nadal’
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures held its second annual gala, which honoured Miky Lee, Steve McQueen, Julia Roberts, and Tilda Swinton. For the occasion, Yeoh wore a black sequin gown by Elie Saab and Roger Vivier heels. Her all-black ensemble was completed with the
RM 27-01 ‘Rafael Nadal’.
Michelle Yeoh at the 2022 Met Gala wearing the RM 07-01 in white gold with a mother-of-pearl dial. Pictured here is an RM 07-01 with baguette diamonds.
2022’s Met Gala explored “In America: An Anthology of Fashion”. Yeoh was dressed in a green Prabal Gurung number and a statement jewellery suite from Tasaki. The RM 07-01 seems to be a Met Gala mainstay, yet unlike the black-strapped version the watch was dressed in this year, the diamond-studded watch sported an all-white look.
Michelle Yeoh at the 2019 Oscars wearing the RM 07-01 with an open bracelet.
Yeoh sported maximalist style with her embroidered Elie Saab gown, along with a strong wrist game at the 2019 Oscars. A Chopard statement bracelet wraps around one wrist, while on the other sits the red gold RM 07-01 that’s dressed in an open bracelet set with pavé diamonds.
Michelle Yeoh at the 2019 BAFTA Film Awards wearing the RM 27-01 ‘Rafael Nadal’
Yeoh’s Elie Saab Couture and Moussaieff yellow diamonds were undoubtedly major head turners, but for her wrist game, she kept it muted with the RM 27-01 ‘Rafael Nadal’.
Michelle Yeoh at the 2019 Golden Globe Awards wearing the RM 055 Bubba Watson ‘Dark Legend’
Everyone was crazy about that sizeable emerald rock she wore at the Awards (it was the same one she wore in the
Crazy Rich Asians movie when she played the stern Eleanor Young), but against her structured emerald green gown, she had on the
RM 055 Bubba Watson ‘Dark Legend’ in NTPT Carbon that showed off the skeletonised caliber RMUL2.
2018 Crazy Rich Asians Los Angeles Premiere
Michelle Yeoh at the 2018 Los Angeles ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Premiere wearing the RM 19-02 Tourbillon Fleur
The film adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s 2013 novel went live in Los Angeles. With her Armani Privé gown and Bulgari diamonds, the actress wore a one-of-a-kind Richard Mille timepiece, the
RM 19-02 Tourbillon Fleur. The watch features an automaton mechanism where the flower’s hand-painted enamel petals open every five minutes to reveal a flying tourbillon. While the 18K white gold diamond-set watch was created in a limited run of 33 pieces, Yeoh’s version was set with additional rubies, totaling 15.16 carats.
2017 Cannes Film Festival
Michelle Yeoh at the 2017 Cannes International Film Festival.
From left: Yeoh wears a custom RM 019 Tourbillon at the "Loveless (Nelyubov)" screening; Yeoh at the opening gala with an RM 07-01; the RM 019 Tourbillon.
Yeoh’s RMs made double time when she wore a bejewelled RM 07-01 at the opening gala, and a diamond-set
RM 019 Tourbillon while at the screening of the film “Loveless (Nelyubov)” during the 70th annual Cannes International Film Festival.
