Odell Beckham Jr. has already made headlines in the last week for sporting his (valued at) $350,000 Richard Mille wristwatch during play. What no one suspected out of this week’s Monday Night Football game between the Browns and the Jets was Beckham rolling out an even more expensive wristwatch. When Beckham took the field on Sept. 9th, 2019 he was reportedly wearing a $2,000,000 wristwatch (that’s right, million, with an “m”). It appears this sports star has a favorite brand because he is continuing to wear Richard Mille as he plays.
Now, we’ve written on OBJ before. In our first post we didn’t truly take a side on whether or not it was absurd for Beckham to be wearing a Richard Mille during play. However, this current bit of peacocking has us at TimesTicking a bit floored. Who would wear a two-million-dollar watch on a professional football field? The answer of course is Beckham, who appears (once again) unphased by the current comments on his fashion. But, and it’s a big “but”, there’s more to the story than just a big dollar amount this time. As more news pours in the biggest controversy surrounding Beckham’s latest timepiece is its authenticity—which has been immediately called into question after Monday’s game.
Richard
Mille?
Questioning the authenticity of Beckham’s watch is not a baseless endeavor. This is especially true considering the limited edition aspect of a Richard Mille model RM 56-02 Tourbillon Sapphire; The company did, in fact, only make ten of them (which already makes Beckham’s watch seem fishy). Keen horologically minded folks have examined photographs from the game and found discrepancies between Beckham’s watch and an original Richard Mille. Initially, most folks assumed he was wearing an RM 56-02 and were stunned. Looking more closely, though, things don’t add up—especially since the skeletal aspect of the piece lays everything quite bare.
What critics have pointed out more than anything is the finish on the metal parts of the mechanical movement. Where the metals on a true Richard Mille RM 56-02 are a black hue, due to their expert finish, his were a bright silver (likely a basic stainless steel copycat). All appearances accounted for it’s very likely a cheap forgery of a real Richard Mille RM 56-02. This odd reality is particularly boggling because Beckham can very likely afford the real deal. He already made waves with his authentic Richard Mille model “RM 11-03 Automatic Flyback Chronograph McLaren” a week back, so why fake it now? Or—perhaps—a better question to ask would be “why not?”.
Hype
for the Game
As the momentum of this hype builds, Beckham is doing a great job of gathering publicity for himself, Richard Mille, the Cleveland Browns, and the NFL as a whole. So it seems it’s a win win win win for everyone involved. Beckham’s iconic one-handed catches are just as dazzling as his horological style—even if he rocks a fake luxury watch every now-and-again. If it keeps tackling headlines and receiving wide discussion it doesn’t seem anyone can lose. Well, except for that first loss of the season against the Titans. We’ll just look past that one for now OBJ.
Times Ticking has been in operation for more than 30 years, since 1982. We have performed watch repair for customers both locally and internationally. If it Ticks! We KNOW it! Our team of watch repair technicians have a combined experience in watchmaking of over 120 years.
