It’s often said that in racing, timing is everything. In fact, it’s the difference between glory and defeat. Milliseconds matter. So, it’s no surprise that when Richard Mille watchmaker to the stars, engineers, and adrenaline junkies—partners up with the legends of motorsport, it makes headlines.
Recently, Lewis Hamilton and Charles LeClerc, both repping Scuderia Ferrari for the 2025 F1 season, were seen flashing a rather stunning piece of horological art: the Richard Mille RM 43-01 Tourbillon Split-Seconds Chronograph Ferrari. Yes, that’s a mouthful—but it's also a mechanical mic-drop.
Let’s unpack this.
The RM 43-01 is no ordinary timepiece. It’s Richard Mille’s latest feat of technical wizardry—a skeletonized tourbillon with a split-seconds chronograph function, crafted in a carbon composite that looks as fast as the cars these two gents drive. The watch is like a Formula 1 engine on your wrist: precision, complexity, and bleeding-edge design. Only 150 pieces will be made. Price? In grade-5 titanium ($1,300,000 USD) and carbon TPT ($1,535,000 USD), but If you have to ask, well… you know how that goes.
Now here’s what makes it interesting. Lewis Hamilton, a man synonymous with Mercedes for over a decade, has jumped ship to Ferrari. And just like that, the red firepower of Scuderia gets a marketing bump not only in speed but in style. Richard Mille, long associated with Ferrari, was quick to loop both drivers into their growing portfolio of athletic ambassadors. The RM 43-01 isn't just a watch; it's a statement: “We’re here. We’re fast. And we’re about to make history.”
But Hamilton and LeClerc aren’t the only athletes flexing wristwear worth as much as a hypercar. Let’s take a quick look at some other heavy hitters in the world of luxury timepiece endorsements.
Rafael Nadal – Richard Mille RM 27 Series
Rafa didn’t just wear watches. He tested them. While most of us would freak out at the idea of wearing a six-figure timepiece on a dirty clay tennis court, Nadal was casually blasting 120 km/h forehands with an RM 27 strapped to his wrist.
Richard Mille’s collaboration with Nadal was built on the idea of “no compromise.” Take the RM 27-04, for example: it’s shock-resistant to over 12,000 Gs. That’s the kind of force you’d get in a rocket-powered crash… and somehow, this watch survived Rafa’s matches.
It’s suspended inside the case using a mesh of braided steel cable—tennis racket meets tourbillon. It looks like it shouldn’t exist, like something out of The Matrix. But that’s Mille’s whole deal: make the impossible wearable.
Nadal and Mille had been linked since 2010. It was a bromance built on grit, sweat, and some of the most advanced watch engineering known to humankind.
Roger Federer – Rolex
Federer was the Rolex of athletes: elegant, enduring, and incredibly Swiss. His relationship with Rolex dated back to 2006, and since then, he had become the face of the brand’s high-level class and tradition.
One of the most iconic Federer/Rolex moments came in 2017, after he won his 8th Wimbledon title. Right there on Centre Court, he pulled out a rose gold Rolex Datejust 41, like he was casually checking the time before heading off to a post-match champagne brunch.
But Roger never stuck to just one model. He’s been spotted in the Sky-Dweller, the Day-Date, and even the Oyster Perpetual. Unlike some athletes who use watches as bling, Federer wears them like punctuation—quiet, deliberate, and meaningful.
Tiger Woods – Rolex
Tiger Woods is golf's comeback king. After his high-profile fallout with TAG Heuer, Rolex scooped him up in 2011, during one of the darkest points in his career. That move turned out to be a masterstroke in brand loyalty and redemption arcs.
These days, Tiger favors the Rolex Deepsea Sea-Dweller—a hulking diver’s watch engineered to survive depths of 3,900 meters. That’s about 12,800 feet for the metrically challenged. Translation: it's built to take the pressure—just like Tiger.
The Deepsea on Tiger’s wrist isn’t just about underwater exploration. It’s a metaphor: the man has hit rock bottom, and come up gasping for air with a major win at the 2019 Masters. Rolex stuck by him, and in return, Tiger became living proof that time—and a damn good watch—can heal all wounds.
Cristiano Ronaldo – Jacob & Co.
Cristiano Ronaldo doesn’t do subtle. So naturally, he linked up with Jacob & Co., a brand that makes Rolex look like a library card (no offence).
His signature piece? The Jacob & Co. CR7 Epic X, a raw mechanical beast with his initials, jersey number, and silhouette baked into the movement itself. And when Ronaldo goes all out, he reaches for custom pieces dripping in green sapphires, baguette diamonds, or even tourbillons spinning around tiny footballs.
One of his more infamous pieces? A $1,500,00 USD Jacob & Co. Caviar Tourbillon, studded with rubies and enough red bling to make Dracula blush.
For Ronaldo, it’s not about time—it’s about timing. He's always the first in the room, the last off the field, and one of the only guys you’ll ever see wearing a casino vault on his wrist.
Conor McGregor – Rolex & Jacob & Co.
If Conor McGregor were a watch, he’d be a complicated, loud, diamond-encrusted machine that punches you in the face just for asking the time.
McGregor has worn everything from the Rolex Yacht-Master II—with its regatta countdown feature—to the Sky-Dweller, a dual-timezone monster that suits his jet-setting lifestyle. But when he really wants to show off, he goes back to Jacob & Co., his watch equivalent of a left hook.
His Astronomia Casino is almost too ridiculous to be real. It’s a 50mm timepiece with a functioning roulette wheel under the crystal dome. You can actually spin it. It’s part watch, part toy, part Bond villain prop—and very, very Conor.
He’s got watches for suits, fights, courts, yachts, and probably one for his morning coffee. For McGregor, watches are not about elegance—they’re about dominance.
If there’s a thread tying all this together, it’s this: today’s elite athletes don’t just want luxury—they want meaningful luxury.
They want timepieces that reflect who they are—on and off the field, the court, the ring, or the track. Whether it’s the elegance of Federer, the resilience of Tiger, the firepower of McGregor, or the absolute audacity of Ronaldo, each of these endorsements is less about timekeeping and more about storytelling.
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