By Erik Gudris
Who knew keeping and losing track of time could be so expensive?
Rafael Nadal, just a day after winning the French Open, appears to be the victim of theft after his $370,000 Richard Mille watch that he was seen wearing after defeating Novak Djokovic in the men's final, was reported by the seven-time champion as stolen. According to Reuters, Nadal noticed the watch missing after he woke up Tuesday morning though no one appears to have broken into Nadal's hotel room.
If this all sounds familiar, it's because back in 2010 Nadal had another Richard Mille watch, valued at $525,000, stolen from him in the locker room of the Rogers Cup event in Toronto. The watch he had in Paris was a "loaner" from the company, but if this happens again, they might just have to keep security guards with Nadal all the time when he wears it.
Nadal wasn't the only player making news when it comes to luxury timepieces. Andy Murray finally joined the ranks of elite players with an exclusive watch sponsor when it was announced on Monday that he was becoming the brand ambassador to Swiss watchmaker Rado. Murray will be the face of the Rado D-Star collection for the 2012 summer season and sport the swanky watch this week at the Aegon Championships.
“I’m really excited about joining the Rado team. The brand is all about edgy style and performance. Timing, precision and accuracy are vitally important for me, whether that relates to fitness drills, measuring my performance or striking a tennis ball," said Murray on his new venture.
The press announcement also had Rado executives praising Murray for his "unrivaled tactical intelligence" and that the brand was a perfect match with the Scot as they could totally identify with his "racquet rebel side."
Though it appears to a perfect match between the "racquet rebel" and the brand that is now the official timekeeper of the Aegon Championships and once was the same for Roland Garros, Rado is still seen by some watch experts as trying to gain some ground in the tennis world to the high profile pairings of Audemars Piguet with Novak Djokovic, Richard Mille with Rafael Nadal, and Rolex's long-standing relationship with Roger Federer.
But, as we all know, playing catchup with the "Big Three" is something Murray has become quite adept at these days.
Bonus: The AEGON Championships's draw, where Andy Murray is this week the top seed. The rest of the top four vying for the trophy at this Queen's Club event are Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Janko Tipsarevic, and Gilles Simon.
Bonus, No. 2: Browse the Rado website to learn more about the Radio D-Star collection.