Watch Paparazzi

Footballer Gregory Van Der Wiel spotted wearing Richard Mille

Gregory Van Der Wiel, the Netherlands international right back who anchored PSG's defensive line during the club's early Qatari-ownership era, was photographed wearing a Richard Mille RM 35-01 — one of the Geneva manufacturer's most technically compelling sport watches and a model with a direct lineage to professional tennis.

The Richard Mille RM 35-01 was developed alongside Rafael Nadal as a purpose-built tool watch designed to survive the punishing g-forces generated by a tennis serve — measured at up to 5,000 Gs at impact. The case is constructed from Carbon TPT, Richard Mille's proprietary carbon composite made by layering filaments of carbon less than 45 microns thick and infusing them with a black quartz resin under pressure. The result is a case that weighs roughly 20 grams complete, extraordinary for a watch of its complexity. The movement, caliber RM 35-01, is a manual-winding skeletonized mechanism featuring a variable geometry rotor, a free-sprung balance with variable inertia, and a function selector distinguishing between winding, neutral, and hand-setting positions — a system Richard Mille introduced to protect the movement from accidental crown damage during athletic activity.

Among collectors, the RM 35-01 occupies a specific niche: it is among the more accessible entry points into Richard Mille's Carbon TPT lineup, yet it retains the full suite of technical credentials that define the brand's sport references. The Nadal connection has made this reference consistently desirable on the secondary market, with demand remaining firm across successive production runs. The skeletonized dial, with its visible titanium bridges and ratchet wheels, delivers the visual drama collectors associate with the brand without requiring the extreme complications of the RM 11 or RM 27 family.

Van Der Wiel's choice of the RM 35-01 is entirely coherent. As an elite professional athlete, the watch's resistance to shock and its featherweight construction align directly with the demands of a footballer's lifestyle — on and off the pitch. The Dutch defender spent his peak years at the highest levels of European club football, and Richard Mille has long positioned itself as the preferred brand of athletes who demand as much from their equipment as they do from themselves.

The Richard Mille RM 35-01 carries an official retail price in the region of $150,000 USD. On the grey market, demand has historically kept values close to or above retail, with clean examples in Carbon TPT regularly trading between $130,000 and $160,000 USD depending on condition and paperwork.