A woman was robbed of a rare Richard Mille timepiece believed to be worth $240,000 in a violent robbery in North London in front of her three kids. According to multiple news reports, the victim, in her 40s, a group of three robbers approached her from behind outside St Pancras International Station in London. Police say the trio of men shoved the women to the ground and forcibly removed the jewel-encrusted timepiece as the horrified children looked on helplessly. The robbers managed to flee the spot with the Richard Mille watch. Thankfully, the victim did not sustain any injury, but officers say she was left shaken after the incident.
The timepiece that was stolen from the woman is believed to be a white gold version of Richard Mille’s RM 037 ladies’ watch. The signature tonneau case has a slim-line design and is encrusted with diamonds. The timepiece is powered by Caliber CRMA1, a skeletonized automatic-winding in-house movement with a 50-hour power reserve. The dial is also framed with more diamonds and features a distinctive red jasper stone at its center and an oversized date display at 12 o’clock.
The police are now urging witnesses to come forward and help them nab the perpetrators. Sgt Max Pennington, from the central North area’s local investigations team, said: “This was a terrifying ordeal for the victim and her three children and we are committed to finding the perpetrators. I’d be keen to hear from anyone who was in the area at the time and may have seen the robbery, or the suspects running off. I’d also like to hear from anyone who may have been offered a Richard Mille watch within the last couple of days.”
The theft of high-value timepieces has become a massive headache for law enforcement agencies in the UK capital in recent years. According to data from Watchfinder & Co, the number of stolen watches nearly doubled in England and Wales between 2015 and 2022, increasing from 6,696 to 11,035. Even the elite and powerful have not been spared from this menace. In 2022, a Kuwaiti playboy narrowly escaped from a violent robbery attempt in London while he was driving his $3.5 million Bugatti Chiron hypercar.
Earlier this year, high-flying Indian businesspeople voiced their concern about the rising theft of high-end watches in a meeting with the UK shadow foreign secretary David Lammy. An increasing number of luxury watch thefts is also forcing owners to sell their prized possessions as they think it’s too unsafe to wear high-end watches in public. The menace is also putting off the ultra-rich from visiting London. To tackle this problem, the Met Police has started using undercover “victim” officers to catch robbers attempting to steal luxury watches. Two operations carried out in late 2022 and 2023 saw plain-clothed officers deployed as potential targets wearing expensive watch brands, leading to 21 convictions to date.
