BY JOVAN KRSTEVSKI
The modern Haute Horlogerie has a dominant name, and that name is Richard Mille. The unique ultra-luxury and ultra-complex timepieces that they create are hallmarks of Richard Mille, a brand that has strong ties with sports and athletes. Take tennis superstar Rafael Nadal for instance, he needs no formal introduction considering his legendary stature in tennis, he’s been seen wearing RM 027 Tourbillon watches on the tennis courts. The new RM 35-03 Automatic Rafael Nadal is inspired by the RM 027 collection of watches and it’s the fourth watch in the RM 35 collection.
The case design is always the defining characteristic of Richard Mille watches and this is no exception. The watch comes in two versions: white Quartz TPT and Carbon TPT with the caseband in Carbon TPT or in blue Quartz TPT with the caseband in white Quartz TPT. Both case variants share the same dial layout, the focus is more on visual complexity over classical artistry of the traditional watches.
As in most Richard Mille watches, the case is an integrated tonneau case whose dimensions are a little hefty at 43.15mm in diameter with a thickness of 13.15mm and it’s water-resistant to a meager 50 meters/165 feet, ensured by two Nitrile O-ring seals.
The movement is in-house Caliber RMAL2, offering a 55 hours power reserve with a 28,800 bph beat rate. The real star of this watch is however the new “Butterfly Rotor” as called by Richard Mille. Without going into technical details of it, the butterfly rotor, which was three years in development, allows the wearer to interact with the geometry of the movement directly with a push of a button, allowing them to control the winding of the movement according to their lifestyle and sporting activities. This in itself is an extremely remarkable achievement.
Both variants of Richard Mille RM 35-03 Automatic Rafael Nadal are presented on a tapering integrated rubber strap and are available at MSRP US$ 220,000.
Visit Richard Mille here.
