This watch cost £160,000. Resellers now want £849,500

A watch that retailed for around £160,000 just a few months ago is now turning up on resale listings for as much as £849,500 — and the reason is partly Erling Haaland’s wrist. The Manchester City striker was recently photographed on a yacht off the coast of Sicily, having a break after Norway’s World Cup 2026 qualification campaign came to an end, wearing a Richard Mille RM 55-01 in White Quartz TPT.

The RM 55-01 was officially launched only in April this year, making the surge in its resale value especially striking. Beyond the £849,500 listing, other examples of the same model, in different case materials, have appeared priced at £710,000 and £620,000. None of these figures represent confirmed sales — they are seller asking prices — but together they show how quickly demand for the watch has built up.

Richard Mille is not a brand known for mass production, and the RM 55-01 is no exception. Although it isn’t a limited edition like several of the maison’s recent releases, the company still makes only a relatively small number of units annually. That scarcity has pushed collectors who don’t want to wait for an official allocation onto the secondary market, where prices have risen well beyond retail.

Design-wise, the RM 55-01 takes a comparatively restrained approach for the brand. Instead of loading the watch with complications, it centres on time display alone, built around a hand-wound, openworked movement that weighs less than five grams — a showcase of engineering rather than added features. It’s available in three versions: White Quartz TPT, Grey Quartz TPT and Carbon TPT, each using lightweight composite materials that have become something of a Richard Mille signature.

This isn’t the first time Haaland’s choice of watch has drawn attention, and his latest appearance is likely to push the RM 55-01 further into the spotlight among collectors. Whether the resale listings translate into actual completed sales at those prices remains unconfirmed, but the level of interest around the model is not in doubt.

Wikimedia Commons/by MichaelEmilio