Footballer Steven Fletcher spotted wearing a Richard Mille

Sunderland AFC striker Steven Fletcher was photographed wearing a Richard Mille RM 35-01, the brand's dedicated Rafael Nadal collaboration piece and one of the most technically accomplished sport watches in contemporary horology. The sighting places Fletcher firmly among the growing cohort of professional footballers who have gravitated toward Richard Mille as the default statement watch of choice at the top level of the game.

The Richard Mille RM 35-01 is built around the RMAL1 calibre, a manually wound tourbillon movement developed jointly by Richard Mille and the Renaud & Papi atelier. The movement delivers approximately 55 hours of power reserve and runs at 21,600 vph. What makes the RM 35-01 genuinely remarkable is its shock resistance architecture: the movement integrates a free-sprung balance wheel with variable inertia and a skeletonised baseplate engineered to absorb extreme mechanical stress — tested at forces exceeding 5,000 Gs. The case is constructed from Carbon TPT, Richard Mille's proprietary material produced by stacking and resin-impregnating over 600 layers of carbon fibre filaments oriented at alternating 45-degree angles, then slicing the cured block into case components. The result is a case that weighs approximately 33 grams on the wrist and displays an unmistakable marbled graphite texture unique to every single piece.

From a collector standpoint, the RM 35-01 occupies a clear position in the Richard Mille hierarchy: it is a true tourbillon in a sport case, not a simplified automatic, which justifies both the price premium over the RM 011 family and the ongoing demand on secondary markets. The Nadal association gives the reference strong narrative credentials — Nadal has worn variants of this collaboration during Grand Slam matches, and Richard Mille has consistently used that partnership to demonstrate genuine engineering intent rather than mere celebrity endorsement.

Steven Fletcher, a Scottish international who spent formative Premier League years at Wolves and Sunderland, has maintained a relatively low profile compared to some of his contemporaries, making the appearance of a six-figure tourbillon on his wrist a noteworthy detail. It signals both personal taste and the broader normalisation of ultra-luxury watchmaking within professional football culture.

At UK RRP the Richard Mille RM 35-01 sits at approximately £85,000, translating to roughly $105,000 USD at current rates. On the grey market, Carbon TPT tourbillon references in this family have historically traded at or above retail, reflecting constrained supply and sustained demand from sport and entertainment clientele globally.