May 28, 2010--Not Your Father's Timex
We have a personal connection to tennis star Rafael Nadal. Well, sort of a connection.
He's from the Spanish island of Mallorca and for ten years we've had a place there. One of our close friends is a Mallorquin who was Rafa's first coach. Soccer coach. As a young boy Nadal was a promising footballer and his family chose Sebastian to take him in hand. One day, taking a break from soccer practice, Seb suggested they hit a few tennis balls. And the rest, as they say, is history.
And, I forgot to add, Rona has a crush on Rafa. In fact, one summer we were on Mallorca and she wanted to go to the one-week tennis camp he was hosting, The only catch--it was for children between the ages of 8 and 12. So Rona tried to find a kid of that age whose parents would let her "adopt" him for a day so she could bring him to Manacor so she could cozy up to Nadal. That, unfortunately (or fortunately) did not work out.
Nadal is best known for his success in clay court tennis. As a youngster he won four French Opens in a row, beating the otherwise invincible Roger Federer each of those years. He lost in 2009 but perhaps because of injuries. So this year's French, currently underway, promises to be special--both Federer and Rafa are healthy and appear to be in top form.
But, in addition to all the hungry big hitters, there is another obstacle that Nadal has to overcome this year at Roland Garros--being able to swing through the ball with his usual controlled fury while wearing a $525,000 Tourbillion RM 207 watch. Though since Richard Mille, the French designer of very expensive watches claims it is the lightest mechanical watch ever made, weighing less than 20 grams, or 0.7 of an ounce, including the strap, swinging freely shouldn't be too much of a problem.
The hithertofore relatively innocent Nadal has made a deal with Mille to wear one while playing. Not clamp one on after his matches so they can be on display during news conferences, but to wear one during the matches themselves.
I know that Mille is in it for the technological triumph (20 grams for this kind of watch is truly something resembling an achievement) but the fact that he is making only 50 of these RM 207 babies, at more than half a million a copy, if he can move all of them, that adds up to, what, a cool $26,250,000. And Rafa's cut will be . . .?
Yes, Rafa like every other ranked player is a virtual walking billboard with Nike swooshes on his shirts, sneakers, socks, head and wristbands, and probably jock, but this deal with the watch is just too much.
What is actually too much is what Nadal was quoted as saying after signing on for this shameless display of commercial exploitation and excess:
“It is an honor for me that someone like Richard has chosen me as one of his ambassadors. Since the moment we met there was a special feeling. I know that he has worked very hard to be able to create this very special watch. I am honoured and I am sure it will be a special and successful partnership.”
I am sure it will be very special for this special ambassador. Ambassador?
If this works out let's send Nadal to North Korea or Iran where he can indeed be a special ambassador. To see if he can work out a special deal.
In the meantime, no more summer tennis camp for Rona.
He's from the Spanish island of Mallorca and for ten years we've had a place there. One of our close friends is a Mallorquin who was Rafa's first coach. Soccer coach. As a young boy Nadal was a promising footballer and his family chose Sebastian to take him in hand. One day, taking a break from soccer practice, Seb suggested they hit a few tennis balls. And the rest, as they say, is history.
And, I forgot to add, Rona has a crush on Rafa. In fact, one summer we were on Mallorca and she wanted to go to the one-week tennis camp he was hosting, The only catch--it was for children between the ages of 8 and 12. So Rona tried to find a kid of that age whose parents would let her "adopt" him for a day so she could bring him to Manacor so she could cozy up to Nadal. That, unfortunately (or fortunately) did not work out.
Nadal is best known for his success in clay court tennis. As a youngster he won four French Opens in a row, beating the otherwise invincible Roger Federer each of those years. He lost in 2009 but perhaps because of injuries. So this year's French, currently underway, promises to be special--both Federer and Rafa are healthy and appear to be in top form.
But, in addition to all the hungry big hitters, there is another obstacle that Nadal has to overcome this year at Roland Garros--being able to swing through the ball with his usual controlled fury while wearing a $525,000 Tourbillion RM 207 watch. Though since Richard Mille, the French designer of very expensive watches claims it is the lightest mechanical watch ever made, weighing less than 20 grams, or 0.7 of an ounce, including the strap, swinging freely shouldn't be too much of a problem.
The hithertofore relatively innocent Nadal has made a deal with Mille to wear one while playing. Not clamp one on after his matches so they can be on display during news conferences, but to wear one during the matches themselves.
I know that Mille is in it for the technological triumph (20 grams for this kind of watch is truly something resembling an achievement) but the fact that he is making only 50 of these RM 207 babies, at more than half a million a copy, if he can move all of them, that adds up to, what, a cool $26,250,000. And Rafa's cut will be . . .?
Yes, Rafa like every other ranked player is a virtual walking billboard with Nike swooshes on his shirts, sneakers, socks, head and wristbands, and probably jock, but this deal with the watch is just too much.
What is actually too much is what Nadal was quoted as saying after signing on for this shameless display of commercial exploitation and excess:
“It is an honor for me that someone like Richard has chosen me as one of his ambassadors. Since the moment we met there was a special feeling. I know that he has worked very hard to be able to create this very special watch. I am honoured and I am sure it will be a special and successful partnership.”
I am sure it will be very special for this special ambassador. Ambassador?
If this works out let's send Nadal to North Korea or Iran where he can indeed be a special ambassador. To see if he can work out a special deal.
In the meantime, no more summer tennis camp for Rona.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:09 AM
1 Comments:
Interesting, reading about Nadal and tennis.
Son of a British friend, who died of cancer in March, wrote yesterday that his mother didn't want a memorial service. But because of her love of tennis and Wimbledon games (she was a big fan of Nadal) a get-together has been arranged on July 4th. The participants will watch games on TV and talk about Sarah. Great idea.
Enjoyed visiting your site.
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