Warning over Paris street robbers who target expensive jewellery after €800k watch snatched

A man had a watch worth €800,000 ripped off his wrist in Paris in the latest of a series of attacks targeting people who wear expensive items on the street.

Published: 8 October 2019 17:11 CEST

Warning over Paris street robbers who target expensive jewellery after €800k watch snatched

A Richard Mille watch similar to the one that was stolen. Photo: AFP:

The theft of luxury watches in the fashionable districts of Paris is quite common. And it is a scourge which the Parisian police is taking very seriously – although there aren’t many watches worth €800,000.

On Tuesday, the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office referred the matter to the BRB (Brigade de répression du banditisme) of the Parisian Judicial Police to conduct this investigation into the violent aggravated theft of a luxury watch. The robbery took place on Monday evening at 9:30pm on Avenue de Friedland, near the Champs-Elysées.

A 30-year-old Japanese businessman who was staying at the Napoleon Hotel, a 5-star Parisian establishment near the Arc de Triomphe, was smoking outside with another customer.

An individual, about 1.80m tall and wearing a parka, appeared, asked the Japanese customer for a cigarette. It was a ruse to check the brand of his watch. The thief then grabbed the man’s wrist and ripped off his watch.

He immediately fled to Haussmann Boulevard.

.@Richard_Mille Tourbillon Diamond Twister $900,000+ For Women Hands-On – by Ariel Adams – : https://t.co/0C41tis6EG pic.twitter.com/Jhmp8MmnXU

— aBlogtoWatch (@aBlogtoWatch) August 6, 2016

The victim, uninjured, filed a complaint. The Swiss watch, from the Richard Mille luxury brand, model “Tourbillon diamond twister” is valued at €800,000.

However, the thief demonstrated that he is not in fact a criminal mastermind as he managed to lose his mobile phone during the escape. The police are optimistic that it will be rich in DNA and information.

This year, in Paris and its suburbs, 71 people were assaulted for their luxury watches between January 1st and September 1st. On Thursday August 29th alone, four attacks were recorded. The victims were targeted by experts who were able to recognise the models at a glance.

Member comments

Anonymous - 8 October 2019 at 22:50 CEST

It’s very upsetting to be robbed, especially with violence, it’s wrong and can’t be condoned, but I find it hard to sympathise with idiots that walk around displaying very expensive jewellery especially in a large city. Who on earth wants a three quarters of a million Euros watch? My Timex cost twenty eight Euros and keeps excellent time, so I guess if these people want this sort of ostentatious display then snobbery gets the better of common sense.
Anonymous - 9 October 2019 at 12:48 CEST

Thank you! Only an IDIOT would a) buy a watch that expensive b) wear it and c) then arrange for the insurance money? Can we spell inside job?
Anonymous - 9 October 2019 at 18:18 CEST

Anyone as shallow, stupid and show-off as to wear an €800k watch in public deserves to get ripped off.

Wearing such a watch is a sign of (a) ACTUAL inner self-esteem lower than whale-you-know-what and (b) a “Let them Eat Cake” arrogance taller than the Tour D’Eiffel. Doesn’t this idiot remember what guillotines are for?
Anonymous - 13 October 2019 at 19:09 CEST

No one should be robbed regardless of what they wear. If he can afford it, he should be able to buy it. There is no evidence that “let them eat cake ” was said by Marie Antoinette. So, people should go to the guillotine for having a fancy watch? Scary!

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The French Jewish community, the third largest in the world, has for months been on edge in the face of a growing number of attacks and desecrations of memorials.

“National police in Rouen neutralised early this morning an armed individual who clearly wanted to set fire to the city’s synagogue,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Police responded at 6.45 am to reports of “fire near the synagogue”, a police source said.

A source close to the case told AFP the man “was armed with a knife and an iron bar, he approached police, who fired. The individual died”.

“It is not only the Jewish community that is affected. It is the entire city of Rouen that is bruised and in shock,” Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol wrote on X.

He made clear there were no other victims other than the attacker.

Two separate investigations have been opened, one into the fire at the synagogue and another into the circumstances of the death of the individual killed by the police, Rouen prosecutors said.

Such an investigation by France’s police inspectorate general is automatic whenever an individual is killed by the police.

The man threatened a police officer with a knife and the latter used his service weapon, said the Rouen prosecutor.

The dead man was not immediately identified, a police source said.

Asked by AFP, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said that it is currently assessing whether it will take up the case.

France has the largest Jewish community of any country after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s largest Muslim community.

There have been tensions in France in the wake of the October 7th attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel, followed by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Red hand graffiti was painted onto France’s Holocaust Memorial earlier this week, prompted anger including from President Emmanuel Macron who condemned “odious anti-Semitism”.

“Attempting to burn a synagogue is an attempt to intimidate all Jews. Once again, there is an attempt to impose a climate of terror on the Jews of our country. Combating anti-Semitism means defending the Republic,” Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF). wrote on X.

France was hit from 2015 by a spate of Islamist attacks that also hit Jewish targets. There have been isolated attacks in recent months and France’s security alert remains at its highest level.