FLOAT 100 · Watches · No. 74
Richard Mille RM 27-01 Rafael Nadal
A tourbillon weighing about 19 grams, its movement hung inside the case on four steel cables a third of a millimeter thick, built to be worn by Rafael Nadal while he played Grand Slam tennis.
- Year
- 2013
- Maker
- Richard Mille
- By price in watches
- 10 of 100
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- Richard Mille, Les Breuleux, Switzerland
- Reference
- RM 27-01 Tourbillon Rafael Nadal
- Launched
- 2013
- Edition
- 50 pieces, plus a small number of numbered prototypes
- Weight
- About 19 g with strap (18.83 g in some sources); movement about 3.5 g
- Case
- Monobloc anthracite polymer reinforced with carbon nanotubes, about 38 x 46 mm, 10.05 mm thick
- Movement
- Manual-wind tourbillon, 19 jewels, suspended on four braided steel cables 0.35 mm thick
- Shock rating
- Over 5,000 g of acceleration
- Launch price
- $690,000
- Public high
- $1,170,000 for prototype PROTO-06, Hong Kong, May 28, 2024
A tourbillon for a tennis match
The tourbillon was invented to protect a pocket watch's accuracy from gravity, and for two centuries it was treated as the most fragile complication in watchmaking. Richard Mille set out to put one on the wrist of a professional tennis player during matches, where the wrist takes repeated violent shocks. The first result, the RM 027 of 2010, weighed under 20 grams with its strap and was billed as the lightest watch in the world.
The RM 27-01, launched in February 2013, went further. It weighed less than its predecessor, about 19 grams with the strap, and its whole movement weighed about 3.5 grams. Richard Mille made 50 of them, and at launch the price was $690,000.
The big idea was not the weight but the way the movement is held. Instead of screwing the movement directly into the case, Richard Mille suspended it on four braided steel cables just 0.35 mm in diameter, tightened by tensioners and running over pulleys at the corners of the case. The movement floats, so shocks that hit the case are absorbed before they reach the balance. The brand rated it to withstand accelerations of more than 5,000 g.
Rafael Nadal and Richard Mille
Rafael Nadal was born on June 3, 1986, in Manacor, on the Spanish island of Mallorca. He won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, including a record 14 French Opens, and in 2010 became the first man to win majors on clay, grass and hard courts in the same year. He retired on November 19, 2024, after playing for Spain in the Davis Cup Finals.
Richard Mille first proposed the partnership in 2008, and it was announced in 2010; sources give both dates as the start. At first Nadal refused to wear a watch on court, fearing it would interfere with his game. He tested prototypes during matches, and refinements followed until he was satisfied.
The RM 27-01 arrived in the season of one of Nadal's great comebacks. After time away with injury, he won the French Open and the U.S. Open in 2013 and finished the year ranked No. 1, wearing the new watch in his tournaments that year.
How it is built and how to identify one
The case is a single-piece monobloc made from an anthracite-gray polymer reinforced with carbon nanotubes, chosen for strength against impact. It measures about 38 by 46 mm and 10.05 mm thick, and is water resistant to 30 meters. Inside, the baseplate and tourbillon carriage are grade 5 titanium, and the barrel bridges and gear trains are an aluminum-lithium alloy borrowed from aerospace.
The movement is hand-wound, with 19 jewels, and shows only hours, minutes and the tourbillon. Look for the four steel cables running from the movement to the case corners, the floating skeletonized movement, and the gray textured case. Production pieces are numbered out of 50; prototypes are engraved 'PROTO' with a number, such as PROTO 03 or PROTO-06.
One auction catalogue gives a weight of 19 grams with the strap; another widely quoted figure is 18.83 grams. Either way, the watch was the lightest tourbillon of its day.
From $690,000 to seven figures
The RM 27-01 is one of the few modern watches whose auction prices have soared well above an already extraordinary retail price. In November 2023, number 14 of the 50 production pieces, with movement number 009, sold in Geneva for CHF 952,500 against an estimate of CHF 400,000 to 800,000.
Prototypes, made in very small numbers and tested before the production run, have done even better. In May 2024, a piece engraved PROTO 03, from about 2014, sold at auction for CHF 1,270,000 against an estimate of CHF 800,000 to 1,500,000. Later that month, on May 28, 2024, a carbon prototype engraved PROTO-06, also from 2014, sold in Hong Kong for HK$9,148,000, or $1,170,000, the most the selling house had ever achieved for a wristwatch.
What came after
The RM 27-01's cable suspension became a Richard Mille signature; the brand later used a cable-and-pulley system to hang the movement inside its sapphire-cased RM 56-02 tourbillon. The Nadal line kept going: the RM 27-02 of 2015 fused the case band and baseplate into one 'unibody' piece of Carbon TPT and Quartz TPT; the RM 27-03 of 2017 wore Spanish colors and was rated to 10,000 g; the RM 27-04 of 2020 hung its movement in a mesh of a single 0.27 mm cable woven like racket strings and was rated beyond 12,000 g.
In 2024 the RM 27-05 cut the weight to 11.5 grams without strap and raised shock resistance to 14,000 g, in a run of 80 pieces rather than 50. But the RM 27-01 remains the model where the floating movement was born, and the one that first proved a tourbillon could survive a Grand Slam.
The numbers
- Reference
- RM 27-01 Tourbillon Rafael Nadal
- Caliber
- RM27-01 manual-wind tourbillon, 19 jewels; titanium baseplate, aluminum-lithium bridges
- Suspension
- Four braided steel cables, 0.35 mm diameter
- Case
- Carbon-nanotube polymer monobloc, about 38 x 46 mm, 10.05 mm thick, 30 m water resistance
- Weight
- About 19 g with strap (18.83 g in other sources); movement about 3.5 g
- Production
- 2013, limited to 50 pieces
Timeline
Richard Mille and Dominique Guenat found the brand.
Richard Mille proposes a partnership to Rafael Nadal.
The partnership is announced; the RM 027, under 20 grams, is launched.
Nadal wins the French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open.
The RM 27-01 is launched at $690,000, limited to 50 pieces.
Nadal wins the French Open and U.S. Open and finishes the year No. 1.
The RM 27-02 introduces a unibody case.
The RM 27-03 arrives in Spanish colors.
The RM 27-04 suspends its movement in a woven cable mesh.
Production piece 14 of 50 sells for CHF 952,500 in Geneva.
PROTO 03 sells for CHF 1,270,000 at auction.
PROTO-06 sells for $1,170,000 in Hong Kong.
The RM 27-05 launches at 11.5 grams, 80 pieces.
Nadal retires after the Davis Cup Finals.
The world in 2013
A meteor explodes over Chelyabinsk, Russia, injuring about 1,500 people.
Pope Benedict XVI resigns; Pope Francis is elected March 13.
Bombs at the Boston Marathon kill three people and injure 264.
Edward Snowden's disclosures of NSA surveillance begin to appear.
Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union.
Typhoon Haiyan devastates the Philippines.
Nelson Mandela dies at 95.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 2013 | $690,000 | Asking price, not a saleLaunch retail price, limited edition of 50. |
| Nov 2023 | $1,069,984 | Sold at auctionAt auction in Geneva: CHF 952,500 (including buyer's premium), shown in USD at the Federal Reserve monthly average (1 CHF = 1.1233 USD). |
A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.
By reference price, Richard Mille RM 27-01 Rafael Nadal is number 10 of 100 in the watches entries of the FLOAT 100. 54 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (74 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- The whole movement of the RM 27-01 weighs about 3.5 grams.
- The cables that hold the movement are just 0.35 mm thick.
- Nadal at first refused to wear a watch on court, fearing it would hurt his game.
- Prototype pieces have sold for more than production pieces, passing $1 million at auction in 2024.
- The cable suspension first used in the RM 27-01 was later used to float the movement of a sapphire-cased Richard Mille tourbillon.
- Nadal won 14 French Opens, a record for any single Grand Slam tournament.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026