Lovers of that magical elixir known as Burgundy regard Henri Jayer as a winemaker whose vision was so seismic that he radically changed our taste for modern wines. Jayer was a legend, the man who saw the potential of a forgotten rocky plot of brush land that was once a vineyard, and set about reviving it by transforming the soil with 400 charges of dynamite and forty-eight trucks of bedrock stones, as well as decades of relentless loving care. This was the legendary Cros-Parantoux in Vosne-Romanée, which today produces the finest Pinot Noir wines in the world.
When asked which individual has most revolutionised modern watchmaking, my response is unequivocal and unhesitant: Richard Mille. Because encoded in the three syllables of his name is a vision for creating watches invoking design codes, technical innovation and materials gleaned directly from the present and the future, which has reshaped our taste for watches, in the way Jayer reshaped our appreciation for wine.
The thing about Richard, and I call him by his Christian name as I have the privilege of counting him as my friend, is that his internal antenna receives the frequency of the future before anyone else. He is not so much connected
