The Richard Mille Waitlist Explained: Why It's Mostly a Myth

People ask Richard Mille boutiques to "put them on the list" just as they do at Rolex. Here's the honest answer from my years in the trade: for the most-wanted models, the Richard Mille waitlist is largely a myth. Boutiques do note who wants what. But who gets a watch is decided far more by who you are and what you've already bought from RM than by the date you asked.

Richard Mille is far less covered than Rolex or Patek Philippe, and it says little in public about how it chooses buyers. So in this article I'm careful to separate what the brand has actually said and what's been reported from what I've seen as a dealer, as of October 2026.

What Richard Mille says

Richard Mille is open about one thing: it wants full control of who sells its watches and how. In 2019, its marketing director Tim Malachard told Europa Star that only RM's own stores can properly show the collection, that in its own stores "we can train our sales people and take better care of our customers", and that "we control our sales, margins and image directly". He also said RM had ruled out selling watches online.^[1]

On who gets the watches, the clearest statement comes from Peter Harrison, chief executive of Richard Mille's Europe, Middle East and Africa business. Asked in 2020 how RM deals with limited editions being resold soon after purchase, he said RM had developed "a very painstaking process of due diligence" in that region since opening its own boutiques, which "ensures, or at least proves, that our authentic customers get the watch they want", and that he expected the approach to be copied around the world. In the same interview he said RM has "no problem selling pieces, our problem is finding availability to meet the demand".^[5]

RM doesn't publish what that due diligence involves, or any rules about who gets which watch.

How Richard Mille sells: a few thousand watches, its own boutiques

Richard Mille's model is the most concentrated of the brands in this series. It's tiny in volume: Malachard said RM made 4,600 watches in 2018 and was growing by 10% to 15% a year.^[1] Reporting in 2023 put it at about 5,300 a year.^[2][4]

It's also sold only through RM's own network. Malachard said RM would no longer be in multi-brand stores by the end of 2019, and that its distribution is based on boutiques it controls directly or franchises run by partners.^[1] In 2023, The Business of Fashion wrote that among the industry's big players, only Richard Mille, selling exclusively in its own stores, had tighter control of its distribution than Audemars Piguet.^[3]

Allocation starts before a watch reaches a boutique. WatchPro's editor wrote in 2023 that even Richard Mille has fights about allocations, "because every country manager wants as many of the best watches as they can get their hands on".^[4]

The list is real. The queue mostly isn't.

With a few thousand watches a year spread across the world, and many new models made in very small numbers, there's no queue for a boutique to work through. Industry analyst Oliver Müller told The Business of Fashion that RM introduces novelties "with very, very small quantities", which creates even higher demand.^[2] When a boutique gets a handful of a new model, being "on the list" just means the boutique knows you'd like one. Someone still has to choose.

How allocation works in practice: what I've seen

This part is first-hand. It's what I've seen and heard in years of dealing, not a published policy, and every boutique is different.

• Existing RM clients come first. New releases and the most-wanted models mostly go to people who already own Richard Mille watches bought from the brand.
• The first watch is rarely the one you wanted. New clients are often offered a model that's easier to get. After that, the most-wanted pieces may follow.
• Who you are matters. The boutique wants to know you: what you do, your standing, whether you have influence, and above all whether you'll keep the watch or sell it on.
• New clients do get watches. Not every piece goes to a long-standing collector. But in my experience, a first-time buyer getting a new release is the exception, not the system.

It isn't only Richard Mille

The same pattern shows up at every brand where demand outruns supply. The difference is who holds the list. At Rolex it's each official retailer (see the Rolex waitlist explained). At Patek Philippe it's a shrinking network of authorized retailers (see the Patek Philippe waitlist explained). At Audemars Piguet, as at RM, it's the brand's own boutiques (see the Audemars Piguet waitlist explained).

Why Richard Mille checks who's buying

When a watch can be resold for more than it cost, every allocation is worth money to whoever gets it. Harrison's due-diligence answer was a response to exactly that question: limited editions being resold at a profit soon after purchase.^[5]

RM also gives owners an official way to sell. Its pre-owned programme, running since 2015, works through a network of approved retailers that service watches to RM's standards, buy them back from owners and sell them on with a certificate of authenticity and a 24-month international warranty.^[6] Malachard described the same thing in 2019 as certified pre-owned watches sold "at specific points of sale dedicated to pre-owned products".^[1]

And RM invests in knowing its best clients. The Business of Fashion reported in 2023 that the brand goes to great lengths to offer its top clients the trappings of the lifestyle around its watches, through events such as regattas and classic car races.^[2]

What Richard Mille says about "spend to get"

To be fair to the brand: Richard Mille doesn't publish a rule that you must buy something else first. Its stated position is that it controls its own sales to look after its clients, that demand outruns what it can make, and that its checks are there so genuine clients get the watches they want.^[1][5]

So the honest summary is this. Officially, it's the boutique's decision. In practice, as I've seen it, relationships and purchase history with RM weigh heavily in that decision for the watches everyone wants.

What this means if you just want the watch

You have three routes, and none of them involves a queue you can see.

If you go the boutique route, be specific about the model you want, be open to starting with something easier to get, and be honest that you're buying to wear it. If you'd rather not build a purchase history for the privilege of buying one watch, the secondary market is the straightforward alternative (see how the secondary watch market works and authorized dealer vs grey market).

If you buy pre-owned, three checks matter:

1. Check the comps. What has this exact model, set and condition actually sold for recently? With so few watches made, asking prices are a poor guide (see how to price a luxury watch for resale).
2. Check the dealer. A verifiable business, a track record and references you can confirm (see how to buy a watch from a dealer safely).
3. Check the watch. Serial matched to the papers, the set described honestly (see full set vs watch only) and an authentication check by someone who knows the brand.

What it means for dealers

For independent dealers, the way RM allocates is a big part of why the trade exists: clients who aren't yet known to a boutique, or don't want to wait for a new release, come to the secondary market. With so few watches made, a dealer's value is in three things: finding the exact model, pricing it from real data and being someone a client can trust without a boutique around them.

On Soda, every dealer is a verified business, and real dealer price history shows sold and asking prices from deals between verified dealers, so you price rare watches from what they actually trade for, not from guesswork.

The bottom line

There's no Richard Mille waitlist in the sense of one fair, numbered queue. There are a few thousand watches a year, RM's own boutiques deciding who gets them, and a due-diligence process the brand says is there to make sure genuine clients get the watches they want. In my experience, existing clients come first for anything new or hard to get. If you want a specific watch without the wait, buy it pre-owned, check the comps and buy from a source you can verify.

Source Richard Mille from verified dealers on Soda

Soda is a trade-only platform where verified dealers find stock on one marketplace, get Looking For alerts for client requests and price from real dealer-to-dealer comps, with no commissions on their trades. See all features, then apply for access or book a demo.