Pilot Pastor Maldonado spotted wearing a Richard Mille

Venezuelan Formula 1 driver Pastor Maldonado — best known for his 2012 Spanish Grand Prix victory with the Williams team before moving to Lotus-Mercedes — was photographed wearing a Richard Mille RM 35-01, one of the Swiss independent manufacture's most technically uncompromising sport references. The sighting underscores the long-running affinity between Richard Mille and the world of professional motorsport, where the brand's ultra-light, shock-resistant cases have become a natural fit for drivers who subject their wrists to sustained g-forces and vibration.

The Richard Mille RM 35-01 was created in close collaboration with Rafael Nadal and introduced as a direct evolution of the original RM 035. At its core sits the RMAL1 calibre, a skeletonised manual-winding movement with a baseplate and bridges machined from grade 5 titanium and Carbon TPT. The movement delivers approximately 55 hours of power reserve and operates at 4 Hz. What makes the RM 35-01 genuinely remarkable is its case construction: alternating layers of Carbon TPT and Quartz TPT — a proprietary Richard Mille composite involving silica fibres laid at 45-degree angles — produce a chassis that is extraordinarily rigid yet tips the scales at just 33 grams on the wrist. Case dimensions run to 50.00 mm × 42.70 mm, a bold proportion that reads correctly on a racing driver's wrist.

From a collector standpoint, the RM 35-01 occupies an interesting middle tier within Richard Mille's catalogue. It delivers the brand's signature skeletonised aesthetic and exotic material language without the astronomical premiums commanded by limited tourbillon references. That said, its association with Nadal — one of Richard Mille's most visible and enduring ambassadors — gives it consistent recognition and demand on the secondary market.

Maldonado's relationship with high-end watchmaking during his F1 tenure was not unusual for a Grand Prix driver of his era, but the RM 35-01 is a particularly coherent choice: a watch built for athletes operating under physical stress, worn by a driver whose career was defined by spectacular pace and equally spectacular incident. The brand's motorsport DNA made the pairing feel organic rather than merely aspirational.

At an official UK RRP of £85,000 — roughly $107,000 at period exchange rates — the Richard Mille RM 35-01 sits firmly in serious luxury territory. On the grey market, examples have historically traded at or modestly above retail depending on condition and provenance, reflecting steady but not feverish demand.