Straight to Top 5 for me! Richard Mille RM 35-03 Rafael Nadal
Richard Mille RM35-03 Rafael Nadal Quartz TPT.
Sport mode.
To me, its morning coffee, to many it turns their cars into monsters, and to Richard Mille its a nifty button that disengages the RM35-03’s rotor so that you can smash serves a la Raphael Nadal without risking overwinding.
Clearly that’s not all there is to this phenomenal piece of RM goodness, but sometimes its good to get the headlines out of the way first.
The RM35-03 was first released in 2021 in blue or white Quartz TPT and in all honesty, this white version is my hands down pick of the bunch, I’m a sucker for white, and the striated quartz is just the icing on what I find to be a very attractive cake.
Quartz TPT (Thin Ply Tecnnology) is is an incredibly tough composite material made using multiple wafer thin layers of silica (quartz) fibres that are injected with coloured resins to create a strong, heat resistant and lightweight material that is exceptionally difficult to dent or dink.
Perfect.
The watch is not huge at 43.5mm diameter, 13mm thick with a length of just shy of 50mm.
Due to its lack of lugs and ergonomic strap which arcs around the wrist, it actually wears close to a 41mm AP, if not visually a shade smaller.
Thanks to the QTPT and curved caseback, this thing is exceptionally comfortable to the point that you cant really feel that you’re wearing it.
The dial is skeletonised and visually complex / fascinating to stare at which is a hallmark of the brand.
Part of its structure is a prominent X frame, a nod to the nature of the ability to split the rotor at the push of a button, I would assume.
The five minute indexes are marked in red to match the tip of the seconds hand, function indicators and crown.
The handset is broad and also skeletonised with lumed tips. While there isn’t a riot of luminescence on the watch, there’s enough for easy reading but not so much that it detracts from the openwork of the dial.
On the right hand side of the case there’s a “selector” button which when pushed determines what the crown can do, wind, set, or rest in the neutral position. This removes the need for the crown to be “pulled out” to set, a method which is often the weakest point of a watch build.
The sport mode button is on the left at 7, and when pressed, the party trick of the piece springs into action and the semi circular rotor splits into two to form a butterfly or X shape. This displaces the weight by 180 degrees, alters the centre of gravity and disengages the rotors ability to wind the mainspring.
The status of the rotor is shown with an indicator at 6 o’clock with “On” meaning the rotor is activated and can spin freely, and “Off” indicating that the rotor is not functioning.
When sport mode is engaged, it protects the movement from overwinding during strenuous or high impact activities.
More to the point, it reminds me of a TIE fighter, which as a Star Wars geek is hugely pleasing to play with and observe in action through the sapphire caseback.
Apologies Richard.
Although variable geometry winding is not new for the brand, the split rotor feature made its debut on the 35-03 which is the first and only Mille to use the RMAL2 calibre, so far.
All-in this is a spectacular offering from the brand. It’s lightweight, well proportioned, a visual treat, and offers a rare and fascinating interactive complication. There is very little that I don’t love about it.