Jeremy Strong Wears a Richard Mille RM 16-02 as The Social Reckoning Opens in Theaters

Jeremy Strong has spent the week introducing audiences to his Mark Zuckerberg, and he did it with a Richard Mille on his wrist. On Sunday, October 4, Strong walked the carpet at the world premiere of Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning at Regal Union Square in New York, wearing a Richard Mille RM 16-02 Automatic Extraflat with a bespoke, monochromatic blue Loro Piana look: a hooded jacket over a polo, tailored trousers, and leather shoes. Today, October 9, the film opens in US theaters.

The Social Reckoning, released by Columbia Pictures, is Sorkin’s companion piece to The Social Network, which he also wrote. He wrote and directed the new film, which is inspired by the true story of Frances Haugen, the Facebook engineer played by Mikey Madison, who works with reporter Jeff Horwitz, played by Jeremy Allen White, to blow the whistle on the company’s most guarded secrets. Strong plays Zuckerberg, opposite a cast that includes Wunmi Mosaku, Betty Gilpin, and Billy Magnussen.

For a film about a man famous for dressing down, Strong’s premiere look made understatement the point, and in our view the watch did the same. Next to the tonneau-shaped sports watches most people picture when they hear the name, the RM 16-02 is Richard Mille at its most architectural: a flat rectangle with no bezel theatrics and no chronograph pushers, just hours, minutes, and a movement you can see straight through.

Richard Mille describes the RM 16-02 Automatic Extraflat as a resolutely brutalist design of straight lines and monolithic structure, in which an apparent simplicity conceals notable technical sophistication. The rectangular case keeps the wrist-fitting curvature and taper of the brand’s other cases, and it is built in three parts, sealed by three Nitrile O-rings and assembled with 12 grade 5 titanium spline screws for water resistance to 30 meters. There is no casing ring. Instead, the movement sits on chassis mounting rubbers fixed by titanium screws.

That movement is the in-house Calibre CRMA9, developed specifically for this watch: a skeletonised automatic showing hours and minutes, with a baseplate and bridges in grade 5 titanium. The baseplate, microblasted and given a grey electroplasma treatment, fills the entire visible surface of the dial side, and only the motion-work bridge stands out in contrasting black PVD. A platinum rotor with Richard Mille’s OneWay winding system and ceramic ball bearings keeps the calibre compact, at 26.00 by 31.25mm and just 4.12mm thick.

The engineering continues where few will see it. The free-sprung balance with variable inertia does away with a regulator index in favor of four small adjustable weights on the balance itself, which Richard Mille says gives better reliability under shock and steadier timekeeping over time. A fast-rotating barrel, turning once every five hours rather than seven and a half, smooths the delivery of power. The movement beats at 28,800 vibrations per hour, runs on 25 jewels, and holds around 50 hours of power reserve.

Then there is the dial, which is less a dial than a map. Richard Mille traces its indices along a wire decal it likens to Ariadne’s thread, guiding the eye through the maze of the skeletonised movement. It is the most graphic touch on an otherwise severe watch, and it explains why the RM 16-02 reads so clearly on camera.

Richard Mille’s own imagery shows the RM 16-02 in more than one dressing, among them a pale case on a cream strap and a terracotta-toned case on a matching strap. Exactly which execution Strong wore has not been confirmed by the brand, but the architecture, the CRMA9, and that maze of a dial are shared across the line. It also makes a neat counterpoint to the featherweight RM 67-02 Mark Wahlberg wore in Las Vegas last weekend: two extra-flat Richard Mille automatics, two very different shapes.

The Social Reckoning is a film about what happens when a company’s inner workings are exposed. Strong’s watch, fittingly, keeps nothing hidden.

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Adrienne Faurote

Editor in Chief · Haute Time

As a former New Yorker, now a “Miamian,” Adrienne Faurote joined Haute Living in August of 2021. She currently serves as the Haute Media Group Editor-in-Chief, overseeing all editorial platforms within the Haute Media Group while also maintaining her role as Fashion, Jewelry & Watch Director. Prior to her position at Haute Living, Faurote was the Market Editor at Marie Claire Magazine US, amassing over ten years in the industry, becoming an authoritative voice in all things fashion, jewelry, and watches.