Richard Mille RM 27-04 Tourbillon ‘Rafael Nadal’ featuring a dial that represents the strings of a tennis racket

Congratulations to Rafael Nadal, after a mind-blowing 14 French Open victories. The best tennis player of all time has now won 22 Grand Slams total, which is two more than Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.

In the final against Casper Ruud, he wore his patented 50 pieces limited grade 5 titanium Richard Mille RM 27-04 Tourbillon ‘Rafael Nadal’, featuring a dial that represents the strings of a tennis racket.

Overall Description

Richard Mille and Rafa Nadal began working together in 2010. Rafa Nadal’s moniker has appeared on several timepieces since then. The 50-piece limited edition RM 27-04 Tourbillon ‘Rafael Nadal’ introduced in 2020 is, nonetheless, among the most remarkable watches ever produced by Richard Mille for Nadal.

The RM27-04 is a manually wound tourbillon with extraordinary lightness. It can withstand shocks and intense impacts whenever worn during a tennis match. The piece was released in 2020 to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of Richard Mille’s cooperation with Rafael Nadal.

This piece is equipped with a brown TitaCarb casing, which is a high-performance polyamide supplemented with up to 38.5 percent carbon fiber. The timepiece’s overall weight, including its band, is only 30 grams, while the movement alone is just 3.4 grams. Besides, the Richard Mille RM 27-04 Tourbillon Rafael Nadal is available in a limited edition of only 50 pieces.

A micro-blasted thread mesh design fashioned from a sole woven steel cable measures only 0.27 mm wide. It is designed to imitate the strands of a tennis racket to support the skeletonized movement. Two turnbuckles with a 5N gold PVD coating hold the mesh in position. Because Nadal comes from Spain, the red and yellow highlights on the markings, as well as the ‘Richard Mille’ and ‘Swiss Made’ inscriptions, suggest the hues of the Spanish flag.

Although the RM 27-04 is a lightweight timepiece, it was built to endure the shocks and gravity forces caused by Nadal’s extraordinary intensity while striking a tennis ball. This Richard Mille can sustain accelerated pressures of up to 12,000Gs. This is significantly greater than every Richard Mille watch, including Bubba Watson’s endurance. Also, each minute, the tourbillon between 7 and 8 o’clock completes a full round.

The movement, which has a power reserve of about 38 hours, is entirely viewable on the rear of the display case and has a highly unusual construction. This manually wound tourbillon movement’s baseplate with bridges is made of 5^th-grade titanium. It’s a biocompatible, corrosion-resistant, and exceptionally strong alloy that ensures the gear train’s excellent operation.

90 percent titanium, 6% aluminum, and 4% vanadium make up this alloy. The use of 5^th-grade titanium in combination with a black PVD coating gives the entire assembly a high level of stiffness and exact surface uniformity. This blend improves the alloy’s dynamic qualities; that’s why it’s so popular in the aeronautics, aerospace, and automotive sectors.

The steel cable is connected with the turnbuckle at 5 o’clock, similar to a tennis racket. The mesh structure is woven by attaching each piece of the major string by piece before interlacing the cross threads. The cable penetrates the hollowed-out titanium plate 38 times.

Price retail: $1,027,000.00 USD
Market price: $2,300,000.00 USD

Photo: Getty Images