Politician Jean Todt spotted wearing a Richard Mille

Jean Todt, the French motorsport statesman who led Ferrari to five consecutive Formula One Constructors' Championships before a decade-long tenure as FIA President, was recently spotted wearing one of Richard Mille's most technically audacious creations: the RM 27-02 Tourbillon Rafael Nadal, a limited run of just 50 examples.

The Richard Mille RM 27-02 was developed in close collaboration with Rafael Nadal and debuted in 2016 as the successor to the original RM 27-01. Its central engineering achievement is a tourbillon movement suspended within the case by a tensioned cable system — a construction borrowed from civil engineering — designed to absorb and redistribute the catastrophic shock loads generated during a professional tennis serve or topspin groundstroke. Richard Mille's engineers validated the movement to withstand accelerations exceeding 5,000g. The manually wound calibre RMUL2 runs at 21,600 vph, offers a 70-hour power reserve, and is visible through the characteristic skeletonised NTPT Carbon case, which is built up from hundreds of parallel filaments of carbon at alternating 45-degree angles, producing the marbled surface pattern the brand has made iconic.

From a collector's standpoint, the RM 27-02 sits at the apex of the Richard Mille tourbillon hierarchy. With production capped at 50 pieces, it is among the most restricted references the brand has ever issued. Movements of this technical complexity — cable-suspended tourbillons in ultra-lightweight composite cases — represent a genuine engineering departure from traditional haute horlogerie, which continues to polarise serious collectors but simultaneously drives fierce demand on the secondary market.

Todt's connection to Richard Mille is long-standing. The brand has maintained deep ties to Formula One culture, and Todt — who governed the sport through some of its most commercially and technically transformative years — has been associated with the marque for well over a decade. His choice of the RM 27-02 on a custom strap adds a personalised dimension to an already rare piece.

The Richard Mille RM 27-02 Tourbillon Rafael Nadal carried a UK list price of approximately £550,000 at launch. On the grey market, examples trade significantly above retail, reflecting both the extreme scarcity of the 50-piece edition and sustained collector appetite for pinnacle Richard Mille tourbillon references.