Watch Paparazzi

Entrepreneur Yusuff Ali MA spotted wearing Richard Mille

Indian billionaire Yusuff Ali MA, chairman and managing director of the LuLu Group International retail empire, was recently photographed wearing the Richard Mille RM 35-03 Rafael Nadal Blue — making him just the fourth person globally to be publicly spotted with this ultra-exclusive timepiece. The sighting underlines how tightly allocated this reference remains, even within Richard Mille's notoriously restricted distribution network.

The RM 35-03 is built around one of the most mechanically significant developments Richard Mille has introduced in recent years: a variable-geometry butterfly rotor. Unlike a conventional oscillating weight, the butterfly rotor's geometry can be adjusted to modulate winding torque and regulate power delivery to the mainspring, effectively preventing overwindin and optimizing energy transfer throughout the power reserve. It is a solution borrowed conceptually from aerospace engineering — precisely the idiom Richard Mille has pursued since the brand's founding in 2001.

The case measures 42mm and is fabricated from blue Quartz TPT, Richard Mille's proprietary composite material produced by layering hundreds of silica filaments infused with a colored resin under high pressure. The result is a structure that is extraordinarily rigid, resistant to temperature variation, and feather-light. The caseband contrasts in white Quartz TPT, creating the graphic two-tone aesthetic that defines the Rafael Nadal Blue edition. Total weight sits well under 40 grams on the wrist — remarkable for a mechanical watch of this complexity.

The RM 35-03 carries the Rafael Nadal signature not merely as a marketing label. Richard Mille and Nadal have maintained one of sport and watchmaking's most genuine technical partnerships since 2010, with each successive RM 35 iteration refining the formula for a watch worn — and genuinely stress-tested — during Grand Slam competition. The RM 35-03 represents the most mechanically evolved chapter of that collaboration.

For collectors, the blue Quartz TPT variant occupies a position of acute scarcity. Production numbers are undisclosed but understood to be minimal, and waitlists are managed exclusively through invitation. On the secondary market, Quartz TPT Richard Mille references in limited colorways command significant premiums over already substantial retail prices, with strong demand from both the Middle East and South Asian collector communities — exactly the demographic Yusuff Ali MA represents at the very highest level.