Actor Michelle Yeoh spotted wearing a Richard Mille

Michelle Yeoh, the Malaysian-born actress who became the first Asian woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress, was recently photographed wearing a striking all-black Richard Mille RM 35-02 Rafael Nadal in NTPT carbon — a watch that sits at the intersection of elite motor-sport engineering and haute horlogerie.

The Richard Mille RM 35-02 measures 49.94mm × 44.50mm and houses the in-house caliber RMAL1, a manually wound skeletonized movement featuring a baseplate and bridges constructed from grade 5 titanium. The movement delivers a power reserve of approximately 55 hours, runs at 28,800 vph, and incorporates a variable-inertia balance wheel for precision adjustment. The signature tonneau-shaped case is fabricated from North Thin Ply Technology carbon — NTPT — a composite in which layers of carbon filament just 30 microns thick are stacked at 45-degree angles and resin-infused under heat and pressure. The result is a case weighing a fraction of steel yet vastly stronger, with a marbled surface pattern unique to every watch produced. The openwork caseback is sealed by a sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment, offering a full view of the movement architecture from every angle.

First introduced in collaboration with Rafael Nadal in 2010 — a partnership that has produced some of Richard Mille's most technically ambitious references — the RM 35-02 remains a collector cornerstone. The NTPT carbon variant occupies a particularly coveted tier: production numbers are tightly controlled, the material is uncompromisingly technical, and the all-black execution in this limited configuration is among the most visually cohesive expressions of the reference. Serious collectors treat NTPT pieces as category leaders.

Yeoh has cultivated a reputation for gravitating toward watches of genuine substance rather than mere status, and the RM 35-02 fits that profile precisely. It is a watch demanding attention on its own technical merits long before celebrity association enters the conversation.

At a grey-market valuation of approximately $520,000 USD, the Richard Mille RM 35-02 NTPT Carbon trades well above most comparable sports complications, reflecting both constrained supply and sustained demand among collectors who understand exactly what they are acquiring.