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Tennis player Rafael Nadal spotted wearing Richard Mille

Rafael Nadal has been photographed wearing the Richard Mille RM27-01 Tourbillon, reference 545.72.91 — the watch that was literally designed around his wrist and his game. Produced in a strictly limited series, the RM27-01 represents one of the most technically ambitious collaborations in modern watchmaking, and seeing it on Nadal in a candid setting is a reminder that this is not a watch built for display cabinets.

The Richard Mille RM27-01 houses a manual-winding tourbillon calibre developed in close partnership with movement architect Christophe Chabboud. The baseplate and bridges are constructed from Carbon TPT — a composite material made from filaments of carbon less than 45 microns thick, laid at alternating 45-degree angles and infused with resin — giving the case an extraordinary strength-to-weight ratio. The entire watch weighs approximately 19 grams on the strap. The movement itself is suspended within the case by a cable tensioning system using braided steel cables just 0.35mm in diameter, absorbing shock through tension rather than rigid mounting. This architecture allows the calibre to survive impacts rated at over 10,000g, independently validated by independent testing institutions.

The RM27-01 was introduced in 2013 as the first tourbillon in the Nadal collaboration series to incorporate the cable-suspension architecture. It followed the earlier RM27-00 and established the engineering template that would continue through the RM27-02, RM27-03, and RM27-04. Produced in a limited edition of approximately 50 pieces, the reference quickly became one of the most sought-after entries in the entire RM catalogue among serious collectors — not for its scarcity alone but because the technical solution it presents is genuinely novel in the context of haute horlogerie.

Nadal has worn Richard Mille on court at Roland Garros and across the ATP circuit since 2010, an arrangement that gave the brand extraordinary global visibility during his dominant years. His association is not purely commercial — the watches are, by documented account, worn during actual match play, which demands that every engineering claim be real. The RM27-01 on his wrist is therefore both a marketing statement and a proof of concept.

On the secondary market, the Richard Mille RM27-01 commands significant premiums over its already stratospheric retail price of approximately £440,000 in the UK. Grey-market transactions for confirmed examples have exceeded $1,000,000 USD, with some auction results climbing higher depending on provenance and condition. For collectors, the RM27-01 sits at the intersection of extreme watchmaking, sporting history, and limited production — a combination that keeps demand consistently ahead of supply.