Celebrate 10 years of ultralight partnership.

Richard Mille (Richard Mille) announced in 2010 a partnership with tennis sports brand Rafael “Rafa” Nadal (Rafael “Rafa” Nadal) and the breakthrough new watch RM 027. The light wrist makes people laugh. The RM 027 is a marvel of engineering tough enough to withstand the incredible vitality of Nadal’s wrist, light enough to float in the water (yes, actually). Now, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the relationship between Richard Mille and Nadal, the fifth generation of RM 027 has been launched, and the expensive new RM 27-04 has been launched.

Yes, following the very shallow (almost invisible) footsteps of 027, we have 27-01 in 2013, 27-02 in 2015, wild 27-03 in 2017 and the amazing new RM 27-04. Compared to the more common commuter fare option, the list of specifications looks like a supercar. total weight? 30 grams (including strap!), only 3.4 grams for the manual winding tourbillon movement with cable suspension. The case is made of a material called “TitaCarb”, and like past examples, it is designed to allow Nadal to wear it when playing tennis.

27-04 has a diameter of 38.4 mm, a pointed tip of 47.25 mm, and a thickness of 11.4 mm. It is a hollow barrel-shaped watch. The case is made of the aforementioned TitaCarb, carbon fiber 38.5%, and has excellent tensile strength (3,700 kg) cm² (for those who want to know), while being as light as possible. The front and back of the sapphire crystal glass table mirror provides an incredibly cool and tennis-inspired movement design. The movement is suspended in a grid made of steel cables with a diameter of 0.27mm, which pass through two A (red) turnbuckle secures the movement in place.

The braid of the steel cable is inspired by tennis rackets. Although it is easy to try to make your tennis watch copy look like a racket, RM has put in more effort here and made a structure that actually relies on a similar structure to support the movement and help it. Manage the impact and gravity generated by professional tennis players. In the test, the 27-04 caliber RM27-04 can resist acceleration of more than 12,000 Gs, which is the first time for Richard Mille. The cable is maintained by a pair of PVD treated 5N gold tensioners, and the ultra-tight weave forms a unique and exciting dial.

The RM27-04 movement is hung from a micro swiss watch net with a diameter of 855 square millimeters. This is a manual winding movement equipped with a tourbillon. It has been completely hollowed out and can be seen from both sides of the dark frosted light case. As mentioned above, the weight of all these elements together is only 30 grams. As a reference, I recently used a three-handed steel triple scale weighing 134 grams, a popular micro brand that weighs 134 grams. Want more? In 2017, Richard Mille (Richard Mille) launched the RM 50-03 McLaren F1, which was the lightest second chronograph in the world at that time. It weighs 40 grams. Finally, the original RM 027 weighs only 20 grams (19 grams for RM 27-01), so although 27-04 is a bit heavy, the previous Rafa RM cannot match 12,000G. So far, you can only bend physics, at least until 27-05.

I have said it before, but although there is absolutely no absolute fact that I will own Richard Mille (Richard Mille), I just like what they do. And if you are like me (pragmatic in practice, but born with a soft spot for romance), you might find their watches are like supercars: I like their existence and specialness. Similarly, I don’t like tennis, but I think these are very cool exercises for cutting-edge mechanical watchmaking and legitimate and interesting ambassador marketing.

basis
Brand: Richard Mille
Model: RM 27-04 Tourbillon Rafael Nadal
Reference number: RM 27-04

Diameter: 38.4 mm
Thickness: 11.4 mm
Lug to lug: 47.25mm
Weight: 30 grams (including strap)
Case material: TitaCarb
Waterproof depth: 50 meters
Strap/Bracelet: Blue Textile

movement
Caliber: RM27-04
Functions: hours, minutes, tourbillon
Diameter: 32.75 x 28.95mm
Thickness: 5.84mm
Weight: 3.4 grams
Power reserve: ~38 hours
Winding: manual
Frequency: 21,600 vph
Jewelry: 19