The Heartbreaking Details Behind Charles Leclerc’s ‘$2.3M’ Watch Stolen in Italy

Formula One drivers are often known for their lavish lifestyles, cherishing ownership of assets from grand residences costing a king’s ransom to mere wristwatches. Well, for the time being, let’s focus on the latter. Ferrari and exotic watchmakers, Richard Mille, signed an insane deal back in 2021, and have since been bringing out some interesting watch concepts to the market.

Their partnership also meant that the drivers had the access to flaunt a few of their limited edition timepieces as well. For instance, Ferrari’s golden boy, Charles Leclerc, recently sported a personalized Richard Mille watch at the Bahrain Grand Prix earlier in March.

Unfortunately, there have been rumors flying around that Leclerc had the watch stolen in Italy. Seeking autographs and pictures, fans apparently swarmed the Monegasque in the Tuscan city of Viareggio when a thief managed to remove the watch from Leclerc’s left wrist.

Amidst the heartbreaking news, here’s something interesting about this incredible fashion piece; The very same watch model once startled an entire auction event last year.

About the personalized Charles Leclerc RM watch

Before we dive deeper, here are a few insights into the watch itself. A social media page, known to hunt down luxurious celebrity-owned products, were able to figure out a few striking details about this RM watch.

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“RM 67-02 Automatic ‘Charles Leclerc’, in white TPT®. This timepiece was produced exclusively for the F1 driver where the movement’s bridges are hand-painted with the colours of Charles Leclerc’s country, Monaco. Powered by the extra-flat skeletonized movement (calibre CRMA7) this watch is the lightest timepiece in the collection of not-tourbillon Richard Mille,” the statement read.

Shocked already? Well, here’s something that is going to shock you to an unimaginable degree.

Charles Leclerc’s stolen watch once starred in an auction

This particular Leclerc-owned product which costs around $320,000 made an appearance at a charity auction “Only Watch 2021“. And unsurprisingly, the RM-Ferrari watch garnered quite the attention; Following what could have been an insane battle of the riches, his watch finally made it to the hands of a new owner for an impeccable price – $2.3 Million (Base price – $284,000).

But, despite exceeding the 2-million-dollar barrier, the RM 67-02 was only the fourth most expensive watch of the event. Lot 41 witnessed a Patek Philippe timepiece touching the 10-million-dollar mark, as it was ultimately sold for around $10.01M.

The second most expensive turned out to be F. P. Journe having been sold for $4.7M. Overall, the numbers are certainly mind-blowing but of course, isn’t it quite indisputable that F1 always manages to hit the highest level of absurdity whenever any related asset manages to make it into an auction pool.