Is Richard Mille Endangering the Lives of the World’s Top Cyclists?
Last year, while volunteering for VaughanTown—a weeklong English immersion program for Spaniards in a scenic Spanish setting—I had a lively and interesting conversation with a successful lawyer from Valencia named Vicente. We were talking about security in Spain, and how in general we feel quite safe. The rates of murder and rape per capita, for example, are five and eight times lower than that in the United States. On the other hand, theft is a problem. To that point, Vicente told me a story.
He recounted how he had once bought a Rolex—a timepiece he treasured for its looks, engineering, and being a limited edition. He wore it on trips through countries thought to be “dangerous”—such as Mexico and Brazil—without incident.
But one evening in his hometown in Valencia while going for a stroll, he was tackled by three criminals. While two of them kept him pinned to the ground, the third robbed him of the prized watch he was wearing on his left arm.
Fortunately, he was otherwise unharmed so he was able to share the incident without much anger in his voice, although he understandably was shaken at the time. How much was the watch worth?
“I bought it for 5,000 euros,” he explained. “But I cannot replace it for that much today because it is now worth 10,000 euros. Also, there is a long waiting list.”
Ten thousand euros. That would buy a very nice aero bike that is equipped with the same top componentry that professional cyclists race today. I was fascinated to hear how something that kept time no better than a $75 Timex or looked no better (to my eye, at least) than a $150 Fossil could be so expensive.
But, as I’d later learn, Vicente’s loss (at least in euro terms) was little compared to what has happened to some of the world’s top cyclists—athletes who, thanks to Richard Mille sponsorship, have become walking targets for criminals.
Who (and What) Is Richard Mille, Exactly?
Richard Mille, born in 1951, is a French gentleman who studied marketing in university and worked for various watchmaking companies since 1974. In 2001, he and Dominique Guenat—who also had worked in the watchmaking industry for a long time—founded a new Swiss company that manufactures luxury watches bearing his name.
Lacking the pedigree or name recognition of, say, Rolex, the company sought to distinguish itself through over-the-top mechanical design and high-end materials such as sapphire, titanium, diamond, and composite (don’t call it “plastic!”) As a mechanical engineer, I can somewhat appreciate this.
Furthermore, at least their watches do not look like anything else. That is something you would be hard-pressed to say about a Rolex.
Whether or not they look good, of course, is a very subjective matter. I am sure there are many who would agree with this comment posted on the OmegaForums:
Looks like a watch for those who don’t really care what time it is and have all the time in the world to try to pick out the hands among the clutter of those dials. The designs would go over great with kids 8-12.
Another way Richard Mille (the company) is trying to make itself stand out is through the sponsorship of top sportspeople. For example, on its website, it cites a partnership with UAE Team Emirates—the most successful “super team” of 2024.
The website explains,
The Perfect Watch: As part of the deal, the UAE Team Emirates cyclists sport the brand’s name on their bikes and kit during the various cycling seasons. The cyclists are also given the opportunity to wear the RM 67-02 watch. This ergonomic model is a true technical tour de force, weighing just 32 grammes thanks to its use of TPT® composite materials and grade-5 titanium. It is paired with a special strap that is entirely seamless, non-slip and highly elastic to ensure it moulds perfectly to the wrist of each wearer.
Finally, Richard Mille differentiates their watches with eyebrow-raising price tags. How much? Try six figures in any of the leading currencies—dollars, euros, or pounds.
Richard Mille’s Sponsorship of Cyclists
After the notorious Festina doping scandal during the 1998 Tour de France, you cannot fault Festina and other watch manufacturers for wanting to stay as far away from cycling headlines as possible. But not Richard Mille.
Richard Mille has managed to get the world’s top cyclists to wear its watches during races, leading to headlines such as “Alaphilippe sports $168,000 watch during race.” How did he manage to do that? By simply giving a watch to them.
Take Mark Cavendish, for example. Last year, he broke Eddy Merck’s all-time record of number of Tour de France stage victories by winning his 35th just days before I saw him complete his final TdF sprint finish in Nîmes. He is now widely regarded as the greatest sprinter in cycling ever.
Apparently, Cavendish’s relationship with Richard Mille goes all the way back to 2016:
If you’re a Richard Mille superfan like Tour de France cyclist Mark Cavendish, then getting a Richard Mille watch of your own can’t get any better than being given one straight from the wrist of Richard Mille himself. And that’s exactly what happened for Cavendish at the start of Stage 5 in Limoges, when Mille requested to meet him.
Although Cavendish was admittedly a little starstruck, he impressed Mille enough for him to unstrap the RM-011 Felipe Massa 10th Anniversary Limited Edition on his wrist and hand it over to the world-class cyclist. Limited to just 100 pieces and costing upwards of £150,000, this isn’t a watch you’d expect to see at all, let alone be gifted.
As if to show his gratitude, Cavendish won Stage 6 in Arpajon-sur-Cère the next day with the lightweight watch strapped firmly to his wrist, sporting it again later on the podium.
Unfortunately, the above is the happy part of the story. Years later, it would take a much darker turn.
A Home Invasion Fraught with Terror
In November 2021, two masked robbers broke into Mark Cavendish’s home while he was recovering from a cycling crash. The balaclava-wearing intruders assaulted Cavendish, held him in a headlock, and put a “Rambo-style knife” to his throat while his wife and infant son were present.
The robbers repeatedly demanded, “Where are the watches?” and screamed, “Do you want me to stab you?” before making off with two Richard Mille watches—one worth £400,000 and another worth £300,000—along with a phone and a safe.
Cavendish’s wife, who was pregnant at the time, later testified that they considered selling their home out of fear, but doing so in the current market would result in “considerable loss.” The financial setback paled in comparison to the trauma of the attack.
Fortunately, the criminals were caught. The BBC reported,
“[It was a] well-orchestrated and well-executed planned invasion of the home of a well-known individual with the intention of grabbing high-value timepieces,” said prosecutor Edward Renvoize, opening the first day of the trial at Chelmsford Crown Court.
“It’s quite clear the assailants were interested in obtaining watches and once they got the watches they left the premises with very little else.”
But even four years later, Mark Cavendish—now retired—has flashbacks to that night of terror:
“I get flashbacks all the time. To have a zombie knife held up to your throat in front of your kid?
“You think about what you could have done. Everyone thinks, ‘I’d fight,’ and of course I was swinging at first. But I tell you, anybody gets a knife held to their neck, you can’t do anything. My wife’s there, my kid. I was helpless to do anything.”
Victory—But Only After Despair
I wish I could say what happened to Mark Cavendish was an isolated incident. But sadly, it wasn’t.
The evening before the final stage of the 2023 Paris-Nice race, two criminals convinced a trainee waitress in a hotel in Valbonne to let them into the room of Tadej Pogačar—the three-time Tour de France champion and superstar cyclist. They told her they were guests of the UAE Team Emirates, and that they wanted to serve one of Pogačar’s partner a drink.
After accessing his room, they made off with his Richard Mille watch.
“It was special to me,” Pogačar said. “It was given to me by my boss after the Olympic Games,” said Pogačar. “It was worth €165,000. Today, it is valued at €300,000.”
Unlike Cavendish, Pogačar did not have to meet the thieves face-to-face—at least not until they were hauled into a courtroom. At the time of theft, he was elsewhere in the hotel getting a post-race massage.
He ended up winning Paris-Nice the next day. Unfortunately, he was unable to accept the overall winner’s prize on the podium while wearing the watch made by his team’s sponsor, since the watch still has not been recovered.
Is Mathieu van der Poel Next?
At the 2025 Cyclocross World Championships last month, Dutch cyclist Mathieu van der Poel marked his seventh world title by crossing the finish line with his arms in an X and flashing seven fingers. On his wrist was a $300,000 Richard Mille watch.
Van der Poel is one of my favorite racers. So I couldn’t help but be slightly alarmed when I saw headlines such as “Mathieu van der Poel Wore a $300,000 Luxury Watch When He Won CX Worlds, Coz, Why Not?”
My first thought when seeing that headline is, “Why not? Because we don’t want him to become a target for criminals!”
Ironically, the same article provided an excellent contrast with van der Poel’s longtime Belgian rival, Wout van Aert. Unlike van der Poel, van Aert was wearing a Garmin Forerunner 945—a watch that is now two generations old that you can buy on eBay for under $200.
During the race, van Aert lost his Garmin Forerunner 945 in the mud. After he finished in second place to van der Poel, two young spectators found it and returned it to him. The watch was damaged but still functional, allowing his coach to download race data.
If he had lost a Richard Mille watch instead? There would have been a 0% chance of getting it back. Well, maybe a 0.01% chance because I’d like to think if I was one of the spectators finding it, I would have returned it. I’d like to think there are others who would have too. But money corrupts, and I think I can understand how many (maybe most) others would have a “finders-keepers” mentality when it comes to situations like this.
Incidentally, van Aert’s Garmin weighed 50 grams and provided valuable performance metrics. Van der Poel’s Richard Mille? It weighed a trifling 18 grams less (32 grams) and serves primarily as a luxury status symbol.
Notably, van der Poel was also wearing a Whoop band for metrics on his other wrist. Why? Because the Richard Mille watch only tells time.
The Risks of Wearing a Richard Mille Watch
Richard Mille’s sponsorship deal with UAE Team Emirates ensures that its cyclists wear RM 67-02 watches, which are made from TPT composite materials and grade-5 titanium. The watch is designed to be ultra-lightweight and ergonomic, but one thing it isn’t? Safe to wear in public.
The theft of luxury watches has surged in recent years. In England and Wales alone, reported watch thefts nearly doubled between 2015 and 2022, rising from 6,696 to 11,035 cases. Criminals specifically target high-value brands like Richard Mille, knowing that even without original documentation, these watches can be resold quickly. They are doing so even in broad daylight and in public places such as Oxford Street in London because it has become “more lucrative than drugs.”
Sure, there are other objects that scream wealth—take cars, for example. But at least cars are harder to steal—vehicles have VIN numbers, require documentation, and are difficult to hide. Van der Poel has a Lamborghini (also given to him by a sponsor) or two, but I worry less about him being carjacked. The would-be assailants wouldn’t get very far in the bright yellow Urus SUV or the brown Hurucán sports car he has been recently seen with.
A watch, on the other hand, can be slipped into a pocket and sold within hours. Even Pogačar was baffled at how quickly they had managed to offload such a high-value, highly identifiable timepiece, remarking, “I find it curious that they could sell it so quickly, with no box or documentation!”
Is It Worth the Risk?
At what point does wearing a watch become more of a liability than a privilege? Pogačar, Cavendish, and other Richard Mille ambassadors have become prime targets for criminals, not because of their cycling achievements, but because of what’s on their wrist.
In a perfect world, anyone would be able to wear anything they want to without fear of endangerment. Ideally, there also wouldn’t be poverty, desperation, and greed. Unfortunately, we don’t live in that perfect world.
Personally, I would not want to wear anything more expensive than the Garmin Epix Pro that’s already on my arm. Garmin sport watches are common enough to not attract negative attention, and are depreciating assets that don’t make them that valuable to thieves. If my watch breaks or gets stolen, it’s not like I’d be losing the price of a house, a car, or a high-end bike.
And at least a Garmin provides data to aid sports performance and heath. Van Aert lost his watch, but it was returned and he got his race metrics back. Van der Poel, meanwhile, had to wear a Whoop fitness tracker just to get any useful data.
What do you think? Should pro cyclists stop accepting Richard Mille watches to avoid a Cavendish- or Pogačar-style robbery? Would they be better off being a little lower key like the NFL’s famously frugal Kirk Cousins?