Watch Paparazzi

Royal Hamdan spotted wearing Richard Mille

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and one of the most-followed royals on social media under the name Fazza, was recently spotted wearing a Richard Mille RM27-01 Tourbillon Rafael Nadal, reference 545.72.91 — one of the most technically audacious wristwatches ever produced by the Geneva-based manufacture.

Richard Mille developed the RM27-01 in direct collaboration with Rafael Nadal, designed specifically to be worn during competitive tennis matches at the highest level. The calibre RM27-01 is a hand-wound tourbillon movement constructed using a carbon nanotube composite baseplate suspended within a triaxial arrangement — a structure that allows the movement to absorb the extreme shock forces generated by a professional forehand, which can exceed 10,000g. Despite this mechanical resilience, the entire watch tips the scales at approximately 19 grams on the wrist. The case combines titanium and carbon with a tonneau-shaped profile measuring 47.77mm × 39.74mm, with sapphire crystal on both sides exposing the full architecture of the movement beneath.

From a collector's perspective, the RM27-01 occupies a singular position in the Richard Mille catalogue. It is not merely a limited edition with cosmetic differentiation — it represents a genuine engineering brief solved from the ground up. The relationship between Nadal and Richard Mille began in 2010 with the RM 027, and the RM27-01 refined and escalated that technical ambition considerably. Pieces from the Rafael Nadal collaboration consistently command some of the strongest secondary market premiums in the entire RM ecosystem.

Sheikh Hamdan has long been associated with adventurous collecting across motorcycles, falconry, and endurance sport — his public persona aligns naturally with a watch built for physical extremity rather than ceremonial display. Fazza's social media presence, with tens of millions of followers, makes any watch sighting on his wrist a significant moment of visibility for a brand.

The Richard Mille RM27-01 carries a UK retail price of approximately £440,000, placing it firmly among the most expensive watches in active production. On the grey market, examples regularly trade above retail, with auction results and dealer asking prices reflecting both the technical rarity and the sustained global demand for the Nadal tourbillon series.