Watch Paparazzi

Pilot Felipe Massa spotted wearing Richard Mille

Felipe Massa closed out his Formula 1 career at the 2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix wearing what may be the most technically appropriate watch a racing driver could strap to his wrist — the Richard Mille RM35-02, a timepiece engineered with the same obsessive weight reduction and impact resistance that defines grand prix machinery itself.

The RM35-02 is the RMAL1-powered successor to the RM035, and it represents one of Richard Mille's most refined executions of the brand's signature skeletonized architecture. The manually wound RMAL1 caliber offers a 55-hour power reserve and runs at 28,800 vph. Its baseplate and bridges are constructed from Carbon TPT — a layered carbon fiber composite produced by North Thin Ply Technology in which 600 individual layers of raw carbon filaments are wound at 45-degree offsets, creating a structure of exceptional stiffness-to-weight ratio. The result is a movement architecture that withstands lateral shocks exceeding 5,000 Gs without compromising accuracy — a specification with obvious relevance to motorsport.

The tonneau case of the RM35-02 is itself fashioned from Carbon TPT, keeping total weight to a minimum while delivering resistance to heat, corrosion, and mechanical stress that conventional case materials cannot match. The watch measures 49.94mm × 44.50mm, which reads large on paper but sits with surprising comfort due to the ultra-thin profile and lightweight construction. Water resistance is rated to 50 meters.

Within the Richard Mille collector community, Carbon TPT references consistently command strong secondary-market premiums. The RM35-02 sits in that bracket of Richard Mille pieces closely associated with elite sport sponsorships — Rafael Nadal's name appears on the dial as ambassador — lending the reference a dual identity as both a technical document and a piece of sports culture.

Massa's association with Richard Mille runs deep; the brand has long maintained ties to Formula 1 through driver partnerships and team sponsorships. Wearing the RM35-02 for his final race lap adds a layer of personal narrative to a reference already loaded with motorsport DNA. At a UK list price of approximately £107,000, the RM35-02 trades on the grey market at figures consistently above retail, reflecting sustained collector demand for Carbon TPT references.