Richard Mille x Rafael Nadal: Milestones of an extraordinary collection

Of the many partnerships that Richard Mille has entered into with athletes from a wide variety of fields over the years, none has produced as many world records and left such a lasting impression on the watchmaking world as the one with Rafael Nadal. Back in 2008, Richard Mille approached Nadal and his team with an idea that would change the course of Richard Mille’s company history: Rafael Nadal would compete in all matches with his Richard Mille on his wrist, just as the racing driver Felipe Massa, who drives every Formula 1 race with his watch, had done. However, this communication strategy, with an unprecedented idea, harboured a number of technical problems: how to design a watch that could withstand the extreme style of an athlete nicknamed the ‘Bull from Manacor’?

What few could have guessed at the time, however, was that the very challenges Nadal’s playing style presented to the engineers would become the innovation driver that ultimately determined the success of the series. The extreme level of control in Nadal’s stroke required movement designs that would maintain their precision and functionality despite the massive impact. His double backhand required a light yet robust strap – the birth of the Velcro strap – and in order not to impair his game, the case had to be as light as possible, which ultimately led to the discovery of new materials.

At the French Open in 2010, the time had finally come. Richard Mille’s teams presented the RM 027, the watch that was specifically tailored to Nadal and his style of play. Looking back, we can say that over the following ten years, the partnership produced watches that would fundamentally change the way Richard Mille watches are designed and manufactured today. What sets this collaboration apart from others of the brand is that Nadal achieved some of his greatest career successes while wearing a Richard Mille on his wrist. With each new Nadal watch, you could see a tangible technical advancement and trace the evolution of the brand through this series. In this article, we take an in-depth look at each watch in the collection and the innovations they brought.

To understand the influence that the first Rafael Nadal watch, the RM 027, had on the entire collection, we need to go back to 2010, when Richard Mille travelled to Mallorca to visit world number one Rafael Nadal and present him with the plans for his first watch. Back in 2008, Nadal’s agent suggested that he play with a Richard Mille watch on his wrist, but Nadal flatly refused, fearing that the watch would interfere with his game.

But in a moment that expressed as much comedy as composure, Richard Mille presented the already sceptical Nadal with the RM 018 “Hommage à Boucheron”, a watch with a heavy white gold case reminiscent of a Boucheron Reflet model from 1947, as the watch Nadal was to play with from now on. When Nadal replied: “I’m glad you came, but I can’t!”, he presented him with the real plans: the RM 027, the initiator of everything that would establish the RM 027 range in terms of lightness, shock resistance and innovative materials in the years to come. It is a moment that helps us to understand what Nadal learnt to appreciate early on about his cooperation partner: the informal, amusing atmosphere that has become one of the keys to their long and fruitful friendship.

In fact, when Nadal saw the plans for the very light RM 027, he did not yet agree to wear the watch, as he was still worried that it would hinder his playing. But when he wore the first prototype on his wrist, it swept away all previous doubts.

But it was to take some time, and the prototype had to endure a lot before the RM 027 could be presented to the world. The prototype was worn by Nadal at matches, subjected to extreme movements and shocks until sweat and even water had penetrated it – Nadal, who forgot he was wearing a watch at all due to its lightness, even jumped into a pool with it. After a few improvements and modifications, the time came at the 2010 French Open: Nadal wore a watch that weighed less than 20 grams for the first time. Thus, the RM 027 was born and began to make its history on Nadal’s wrist. Despite his former worries, everything went extremely well for Nadal with the watch on his wrist: he went on to win three Grand Slam tournaments wearing the watch that year, including his first victory at the US Open, and made history with his seventh consecutive win at the French Open in 2012. In fact, he has become so accustomed to the feeling that Nadal himself admitted in an interview that it was almost unusual for him not to wear a watch.

The RM 27-02, launched in 2015, also occupies a special position among the Rafael Nadal watches, which have driven research through the pursuit of lightness in such a way that innovations have emerged. In the case of the RM 27-02, there were even two ideas that went beyond the Nadal line to determine the construction and aesthetics of today’s Richard Mille watches.

But there is another link between the watches bearing the slogan “A Racing Machine on the Wrist” and Formula 1 racing cars: the high-performance materials. To withstand enormous loads and ensure stability, the monocoque, like the case of the RM 27-01, is made of carbon fibre. But Richard Mille went one step further with the second innovation. The RM 27-01 was the first watch to use a combination of carbon TPT and quartz TPT developed with the company North Thin Ply Technology (NTPT), which gave the case its emblematic black and white look.

This black and white appearance was created by a structure of over 600 layers alternating between quartz and carbon fibres. Thin layers of quartz and carbon fibres, no more than 30 microns thick, were stacked in an automated process, with each layer rotated 45 degrees to the previous one. These layers were then pressed under a pressure of 6 bar and a heat of 120 °C to form an extremely resistant composite material. The hardened material was then precision machined using CNC machines to create the final shape of the housing.

The resulting case was light, robust and featured unique patterns created by the individual layering of materials that were customised to each timepiece like a fingerprint.

At the 2017 French Open, Rafael Nadal wore a watch that became the most eye-catching watch in the Nadal collection, not only because of its vibrant colours, but also because of its impressive movement construction. The 27-03 combined the colours of the Spanish flag with innovative watchmaking, and was particularly impressive thanks to its Quartz TPT case, which was developed in collaboration with North Thin Ply Technology.

This material consisted of ultra-thin layers of silicon dioxide – no more than 45 micrometres thick – that were impregnated with coloured resin. The material was then heated to 120°C at a pressure of 6 bar in an autoclave (gas-tight pressurised containers used for the thermal treatment of materials in the over-pressure range) before it was ready for further processing on the CNC machines at Richard Mille manufacture. This created a robust and unique structure that made the case water-resistant to 50 metres thanks to two nitrile O-ring seals.

The calibre of the RM27-03 with hand-polished bevels and satin-finished surfaces was a symbol of craftsmanship. The bridges framing the barrel and the tourbillon were reminiscent of the stylised head of a bull, a symbol of Rafael Nadal and his native Spain. The RM 27-03 impressed with its ability to withstand shocks of up to 10,000 G.

In 2020, the RM 27-04 presented the greatest reference to tennis to date: Richard Mille found the template for the design of the RM 27-04 in the strings of a tennis racket. This design, which was innovative from various points of view, also revealed the mix of function and aesthetics that characterised the collection in general, but this timepiece in particular, making it possibly the most emblematic watch in the entire collection.

But the exceptional nature of the RM 27-04 within the Nadal line went far beyond its material. The case, water-resistant to 50 metres, was also a real novelty. It was made of a material called TitaCarb, a high-performance polyamide that is often used in aviation and medicine. Richard Mille further developed the material with his long-standing partner Biwi SA. The housing was reinforced with 38.5 percent carbon fibres, which gave it an exceptional tensile strength of 370 MPa (3,700 kg/cm²), making it one of the strongest composite materials in the world, with a breaking point close to that of steel. Despite these properties, the RM 27-04 weighed just 30 grams including the strap.

It is often said that a Richard Mille watch is almost more beautiful from the back than from the front – but why is that? The answer lies in the fact that the front contains many technical elements through which you have to recognise the time display. On the other hand, nothing remains hidden on the back. The watch presents itself in its raw state – it is alive.

The RM 27-04 was the first watch in the collection to have this feature, with an open sapphire crystal caseback that reveals the fine details of the mechanics: the architecture of the diagonal movement, the 5N gold tension screws that support the entire calibre, the numerous finishing details and the complexity of the mesh construction – all were visible through the caseback. This collector’s item thus transparently showcased the work of the Richard Mille watchmakers and engineers.

The challenge of producing the lightest watch in the range challenged the engineers to rethink the movement as well: instead of taking weight away from the movement, the engineers added more to make the exterior of the watch even more stable and thus save weight on the case. This concept could work because the movement, which was fixed between the upper flange and the outer case, improved the structural integrity of the watch and thus acted as a support.

Will this be the last Richard Mille watch model we see on Rafael Nadal’s wrist during a professional match on the tour? It’s quite possible, as his unrivalled tennis career is unfortunately slowly coming to an end, as the Spaniard himself has repeatedly indicated. But his friendship with Richard Mille will undoubtedly go far beyond his sporting ambitions – and may even lead to the creation of a watch or two together at some point.