WORLDTEMPUS - 23 December 2010
Elizabeth Lilly Doerr
Rafael Nadal's ultra-expensive good luck charm did its job well in 2010: Nadal won three of four Grand Slam tournaments (French Open, Wimbledon, U.S. Open) — thus guaranteeing major headlines in watch – and other – media.
Nadal has signed on as Richard Mille's ambassador for the next two years, but more than this it has been his actual watch that has caused the biggest media sensation. The RM 027 RN contains a tourbillon, generally a sensitive addition to a movement, and certainly not something that your average sports nut would care to understand. In fact, both the tennis press and the associated news networks have made more ado about the watch's price tag of $525,000 than the fact that it only weighs 18 grams with its rubber strap. “It's so ergonomic and comfortable that he doesn't feel anything,” Richard Mille explained to me regarding Nadal's watch during London's Queens Tournament.
Mille achieves this extreme lightness with materials usually found in aerospace industries — many of which are in use in horology because of Mille's pioneering search for lightness over the course of the last decade. The RM 027 RN itself boasts materials new to the watchmaking industry such as LITAL, an alloy of aluminum, lithium, copper, magnesium and zirconium. Virtually no standard watch parts are found in a Richard Mille watch, since here it is the concept that defines the components, not the components that define the watch.
Through his continuous research Mille has, in fact, often defined new standards in modern watchmaking, and Nadal's breathtaking tourbillon is a shining example.
