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Wednesday, June 26, 2019

9 crore worth ! Richard Mille watch stolen in Ibiza, Spain ..


A chronograph is a specific type of watch that is used as a stopwatch combined with a display watch. A basic chronograph has an independent sweep second hand; it can be started, stopped, and returned to zero by successive pressure on the stem. More complex chronographs use additional complications and can have multiple independent hands to measure seconds, minutes, hours and even tenths of a second.
Modern day youngsters may not really understand many a thing – one of that is the importance of watch ~ a wrist watch was a luxury till about 5 decades ago… only college goers and rich  were blessed with wrist watches ~ HMT ruled the roost… the most common Q that one to put to the other on the road was ‘may I know what the time is ?’ ~ now the Q is ‘where are you ?’ [everyone talking on mobile on street and perhaps mostly asking the other person as to where he / she is ?] [ in Cinema, if one were to speak to a girl – Q – what is the time ?] ~ and mobiles have effectively replaced the wrist watches !!

Wearing wrist watches were customary – they were to be hand wound – automatic watches were costlier.  MG Ramachandran, Tamil Nadu's former chief minister and founder of AIADMK, was laid to rest at Marina beach in his iconic attire, complete with his fur cap, dark shades, and his famous Seiko watch. In years to come, believers swore that MGR's watch could be heard ticking from beyond the grave.

Those days when I went to school, wearing a watch was a prestige ! – not many could afford watches; HMT [Hindustan Machine Tools] priced their watches in the range of Rs.350/- + and in 1979  my grandfather awarded me one [HMT Vijay blue-dialled wrist watch] for me scoring  good marks in SSLC Exam -  it was heaven ~ those days, Rs.300/- + easily was more than a month’s salary for most…… life has changed a long way.. now you have costly wrist watches, brands that are status symbols ~ at the same time, you have duplicate ones at throw away prices, which also work fine and well serve the intended purpose of showing the time.  Now this post is about a watch worth Rs.9 Crores worth approx. – leaves to imagine, if one requires a watch for showing time – why and how can a watch be so costly ? – what extra will that offer ? – what sort of utility value it has ??

At home, have seen some elders have the time in watch set a few minutes faster – that way – one could get a warning they would say .. .. I always wonder whether that will work at all – when one is aware that the clock is running 10 mins or so faster, would not we always reckon that extra time and somehow contrive to be late !

Richard Mille is a brand of luxury Swiss watches from the company of the same name founded in 1999 by French businessman Richard Mille. After studying marketing in Besançon, Richard Mille, started work at Finhor, a local watchmaking company in 1974. In 1999 he founded the company Richard Mille SA in collaboration with AudemarsPiguet. Its first product, the RM001 went on sale in 2001. Richard Mille SA is based in Les Breuleux, in the Canton of Jura, Switzerland.The brand's most famous models are the Tourbillon RM 008 (chronograph tourbillon) and the sapphire split seconds (chronograph tourbillon) RM 056. The RM 008 combines a tourbillon movement with manual winding, a chronograph split-seconds, a torque indicator, and a power reserve indicator. Claimed to be one of the most advanced watches in the world, it is priced from 500,000 Euro.

Today, Daily Mail UK reports of a super-rich tourist losing his  £1MILLLION McLaren F1-inspired watch !    ~ valued so high,   there are only 75 of the ultralight pieces in the world. .. . it is reported that a  pickpocket in Ibiza stole one of the world's most valuable watches worth nearly £1million from a tourist. The thief, thought to be in his 30s, stole the Formula One inspired wristwatch from its Azerbaijan owner in broad daylight after shoving his victim several times. He then made off with his haul at around 4.30pm last Wednesday which police say is worth €1.2 million. Only 75 of the record-breaking ultralight watches exist in the world.

The Azerbaijan tourist, aged 22, was walking along the seafront in Ibiza town with a friend when the robbery happened. He was left with injuries to his wrist and arm. Police say he was staying in a hotel in Ibiza and immediately went to the police station to report the theft. The watch is a Richard Mille (RM) 50-03 McLaren F1 valued at approximately €1,150,000. (INR 9 Cr approx)  It is the lightest in the world, weighing only 40 grams with the strap included. The watch is inspired by the McLaren F1 cars and is a tourbillon - a specific mechanism of watchmaking - that means the entire mechanism inside the case rotates at a rate of one revolution per minute in order to nullify the effects of gravity. In addition to that, the RM 50-03 features chronograph function of fractions of a second to measure lap times, a power reserve of 70 hours, and a torsion sensor to avoid winding.

No words to say !!

With regards –S. Sampathkumar
26th June 2019

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