Watch Paparazzi

Athlete Wayde Van Niekerk spotted wearing Richard Mille

Few watch sightings in recent Olympic history carry the narrative weight of this one. On the night of August 14, 2016, South African sprinter Wayde van Niekerk demolished Michael Johnson's seemingly untouchable 400m world record, running 43.03 seconds from lane eight to claim gold in Rio. On his wrist throughout: a Richard Mille RM 27-02 Tourbillon Rafael Nadal, one of only 50 ever made.

The RM 27-02 is among the most technically extreme wristwatches Richard Mille has ever produced. Built around a manual-winding tourbillon movement — Calibre RM27-02 — the case is constructed from Carbon TPT and Quartz TPT, materials originally developed for aerospace and Formula 1 applications. The defining engineering achievement is its triaxial suspension system, a braided cable architecture that mounts the movement inside the case using steel cables just 0.35mm in diameter. The entire assembly is rated to withstand shocks up to 10,000 Gs, a figure validated during Nadal's serve and groundstroke testing. Power reserve sits at approximately 70 hours.

The Nadal collaboration began with the RM 27-01 in 2013, but the -02 refined the suspension geometry and pushed shock resistance further. With only 50 pieces produced, the RM 27-02 sits firmly in the upper tier of Richard Mille's already rarefied catalogue. Collectors regard it as one of the brand's most compelling athlete-tied references — not merely a marketing exercise, but a genuine stress-tested instrument that happens to tell time.

Van Niekerk's connection to Richard Mille adds a layer the brand's marketing team could never have scripted. Running the fastest 400m in history while wearing a watch designed to survive the physical extremes of professional sport is a real-world proof of concept that no press release can replicate. Whether the watch was a gift, a partnership, or personal acquisition remains unconfirmed, but its presence on that track in Rio is now part of the reference's history.

At a UK list price of approximately £550,000 — translating to roughly $700,000 USD at the time — the RM 27-02 was never an accessible proposition. On the secondary market, examples have traded at multiples of retail, reflecting both extreme scarcity and the Nadal name. The Rio connection, however informal, only deepens the collector allure of this particular reference.