Sports partnerships for watches are nothing new, though it?s not every day an athlete claims the highest title in his or her field while wearing the sponsoring watch ? let alone one that retails at $1,050,000. Yet Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal did just that, wearing the Richard Mille RM 27-04 Tourbillon Rafael Nadal and claiming victory in this year?s French Open, and with that win, his 20th Grand Slam title. This is the 10th year of Nadal and Richard Mille?s ongoing partnership, and this watch named for the star is the latest iteration of the brand’s “extreme watchmaking” geared toward handling Nadal’s individual style of play.

Taking a closer look at the RM 27-04 Tourbillon, we find a familiar Richard Mille silhouette, with plenty of special elements drawn together specifically for Nadal. Its tonneau-shaped case measures 38.4 mm across and 47.25 mm in length. Despite its formidable presence, the watch sits quite close to the wrist, at only 11.4-mm thick, complete with its eight bezel screws, overall sporty styling, and prominent orange-accented crown.
The polished and sandblasted case itself is constructed of a super-light material the brand dubs TitaCarb, which is a high-performance polyamide built with 38.5% carbon fiber and featuring a tensile strength of 370 MPa (3,700 kg/cm2 ), which Richard Mille claims makes it one of the most resistant polymers in the world. Possibly the most impressive feature of the case is its lightness ...