A woman has been robbed of an exquisite £185,000 designer watch by a gang of violent robbers who forcibly pulled it from her wrist in front of her horrified children.
The victim, in her 40s, was wearing a Richard Mille timepiece when she was approached by the group of three men outside St Pancras International Station in Euston Road on Sunday July 21 at 10.47pm.
Police say the trio of men then pushed her to the ground and removed her watch as her three children looked on helplessly.
The robbers then ran off with the timepiece. The woman was not injured, but officers say she was left shaken. No description of the thieves was available.
The timepiece is believed to be a Richard Mille RM 037, worth around £185,000, with a casing made of white gold.
The Metropolitan Police issued this image of a watch stolen from a woman outside St Pancras on Sunday July 21 – a white gold and diamond Richard Mille RM 037 worth around £185,000
The woman was robbed outside St Pancras International Station on Euston Road (the station entrance pictured)
Diamonds are set into both the face and the casing of the Swiss-made jewellery, which is believed to have a distinctive red jasper stone at its centre.
The Metropolitan Police has urged anyone who witnessed the violent robbery, saw the men fleeing or has been offered a Richard Mille watch matching its description to get in touch.
Sergeant Max Pennington, from the Met’s Central North 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.
‘Any information you provide will be treated in the strictest confidence. Alternatively you can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously.’
Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 or to direct message @MetCC on X, formerly Twitter, quoting reference CAD 7902/21Jul. Information can also be passed on anonymously via charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Luxury watch thefts have risen greatly in the last two years in London – with thieves targeting items they can move quickly for huge sums of cash.
Watch dealers told MailOnline earlier this year they were seeing customers look to offload watches that were simply too valuable to wear, fearing they would become the next target of a ‘Rolex ripper’.
Danny Pizzigoni, owner of The Watch Club in the West End, said crime was prompting owners to sell up.
‘People come in and they say, “I want to sell this gold Day-Date [Rolex] or this yellow gold [Philippe Patek] Nautilus because I’m too scared to wear it,”‘ he said.
There are fears the spate of crime targeting the ultra-rich is also putting them off of visiting London.
Watch robberies have been on the rise in recent years – with the Met Police running sting operations (above) to snare thieves seeking quick cash
Undercover officers have been operating in London’s West End wearing luxury timepieces in order to catch conniving thieves
Business leader Devin Narang has warned of Indian CEOs’ fears about crime levels in the UK
High-profile Indian businessman Devin Narang warned earlier this year: ‘People are being mugged in the heart of London, in Mayfair – all CEOs in India have had an experience of physical mugging and the police not responding.’
More than 6,000 luxury watches were stolen in London in 2022, including from famous faces.
In April 2022 former British boxing champion Amir Khan was accosted by a gunman who made off with his custom-made £72,000 watch as he left a restaurant in east London.
And last July a machete-wielding teenager also targeted broadcaster and former chorister Aled Jones, taking his £17,000 Rolex.
But the Met says incidents have halved since officers began conducting undercover sting operations in the West End last year.
Plain-clothed officers volunteered to go out wearing valuable timepieces after analysis showed thieves tend to target well-heeled victims leaving pubs and clubs between 11pm and 4am on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights in Soho.
Over two operations, which ran from October 2022 to December 2022 and March 2023 to October 2023, 27 people were arrested and subsequently charged.
Of these, 21 were convicted – with 14 sentenced to a total of 26 years in prison.
