Richard Mille Richard Mille president and chief executive
What gets you out of bed in the morning? I am extremely happy every morning when I get up, whatever the time, whatever the weather, whatever the time I went to bed, whatever the work. My 'problem' is linked to the fact that I don't need a special reason to get up. I normally jump out of my bed, which makes me feel I am still young. More generally, I hate seeing sad faces in the morning; I really like to share my happiness, which is sometimes not that easy. To summarise, I don't know why I'm so happy in the morning, but I don't want to analyse the reasons, in case I don't find
any.
What drives you to innovate? There are no commercial reasons, for sure. I don't think I would have made the watches I have if I'd been thinking about commercial reasons, or they would have been one-hundredth of the result. Innovation is only pure pleasure, it is very egotistical. I don't have to force myself, as some writers or painters do; the envy comes naturally. Of course, sometimes, I have to wait until the moment is ideal. One of the reasons is that I am never satisfied with any result, even if there are no frustrations.
If you could only make one more watch, what would it be? A mechanical watch that performs like a quartz watch. But I don't think I'll be able to stop coming up with new concepts anyway.