All offseason, the Cleveland Browns were expected to be the most exciting team in football, but on Sunday, the most exciting thing they put on the field was… a watch. The Tennessee Titans defeated the Browns, 43-13, and Browns new recruit Odell Beckham Jr. had seven catches for 71 yards while wearing a $190,000 Richard Mille watch (though you’ll likely need about $300,000 on the used market to actually buy one). Once we start officiating NFL games the way God intended — by crowning the team with the best and most expensive watch on the field — the Browns’ fortunes will finally turn around.
On Sunday, Beckham wore the same watch he wore throughout training camp: the RM 11-03 McLaren, one of many race-inspired watches from Richard Mille. This is an important indirect reference: for half a century, race car drivers have been wearing watches while competing. When talking about “sports watches,” some of the most famous models were made for racing, such as the Rolex Daytona Cosmograph, Omega Speedmaster, and TAG Heuer Monaco. Richard Mille also entered the racing world in 2007, collaborating with Brazilian driver Felipe Massa.
Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
That initial partnership with Massa grew into something more serious, spanning more sports, and suddenly athletes all over the world were wearing Richard Mille watches. Following Massa, Italian soccer coach Roberto Mancini, as well as golfer Bubba Watson and tennis champion Rafael Nadal, all began wearing Richard Mille watches while playing their respective sports. (Nobody had a better Sunday than Richard Mille: When Nadal lifted the US Open trophy over the weekend, the Richard Mille collaborative RM was visible on his wrist.) This is all a brilliant marketing ploy by Mille to boast that his watches are so light that athletes can wear them on the court and on the links.
But while tennis and golf are both non-contact sports, wearing a nearly $200,000 watch during a football game is a whole other story. On a tennis court, there’s no risk of being crushed by a 350-pound defensive lineman. Beckham’s menacing presence adds a whole new and unique layer to Richard Mille’s swagger: his watch is not only light enough to wear on the football field, but it can also withstand impacts. The watch on Beckham’s wrist has brought Richard Mille $2.18 million worth of brand exposure. According to Apex Marketing Group.
But really, the biggest boast belongs to Beckham, who doesn’t seem at all worried about what 60 minutes of intense play will do to his $200,000 watch. Brown has already helped put the NFL’s tunnel style in the spotlight, but bringing Beckham-level swag onto the field isn’t without risk. As The Atlantic’s Jemele Hill put it: He wrote on TwitterThe watch put Beckham on another level than the rest of us: “Imagine being rich enough to wear a $200,000 watch and play soccer,” she tweeted. “Oh my god I’m poor.”