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Entrepreneur Steven Zhang spotted wearing Richard Mille

Steven Zhang, chairman of Serie A giants Inter Milan, was recently photographed on the wrist with one of the most technically ambitious releases Richard Mille has produced in recent years: the RM 35-03 Rafael Nadal in blue and white Quartz TPT. For a collector of Zhang's caliber, this is not a casual choice — it is a statement about where ultra-high horology is heading.

The Richard Mille RM 35-03 is built around a RMAL1 manual-winding movement featuring a variable-geometry butterfly rotor — an industry first. Unlike a conventional oscillating weight, the butterfly rotor deploys two symmetrical weighted arms whose angle can be mechanically adjusted by the wearer, effectively tuning the winding torque to the intensity of their movement. On the court, Nadal can set it for maximum efficiency; off the court, the rotor slows, preventing over-winding. The movement also incorporates a free-sprung balance with variable inertia, a tonneau-shaped architecture, and functions include hours, minutes, and seconds. Power reserve sits at approximately 55 hours.

The case itself is a feat of composite engineering. Quartz TPT — Richard Mille's proprietary layered quartz-fiber material produced with North Thin Ply Technology — involves stacking hundreds of silica filament layers at 45-degree angles and impregnating them with tinted resin under high pressure. The result is a case material harder than titanium, lighter than aluminum, and visually unlike anything else in fine watchmaking. The blue and white colorway in the RM 35-03 directly references Nadal's signature Roland Garros aesthetic and Inter Milan's club palette simultaneously — a coincidence that makes Zhang's wrist choice all the more apt.

Among Richard Mille collectors, the Nadal lineage — from the original RM 027 through RM 27-04 to the RM 35-03 — represents the marque's most technically daring work. Each generation has pushed both material science and movement architecture further. The RM 35-03 is produced in extremely limited numbers, which explains the staggering gap between its $220,000 retail price and its current grey-market reality.

On the secondary market, the Richard Mille RM 35-03 Rafael Nadal in Quartz TPT commands approximately $950,000 — more than four times retail — reflecting both scarcity and the model's status as a collector benchmark. For Steven Zhang, whose horological taste runs consistently toward the avant-garde, this sighting confirms the RM 35-03 as the wrist piece of the moment.