Formula 1 drivers generally aren’t short on cash, so most of them have pretty reasonable watch collections… But Daniel Ricciardo’s watch collection is easily the most lavish in the game. Take that, Lewis Hamilton.
Daniel Ricciardo might be without a race seat in Formula 1 this year, but the affable Aussie seems in high spirits, clearly relishing his new role as Red Bull reserve driver-slash-paid court jester. He seems re-energised: happy to be away from McLaren and the miasma of his disappointing two-year stint with the team.
Rather than racing every weekend, he’s had more time to do the things he loves – like tooling around on minibikes, chilling with mates in America or shooting fun promotional videos with Red Bull. He even had time to head to Venice for the wedding of his best mate, snowboarder Scotty James, to Chloe Stroll – sister of F1 driver Lance Stroll.
Danny Ric and his girlfriend, Heidi Berger (daughter of former F1 driver Gerhard Berger – it’s all one big F1 family!) were appropriately dolled up in Venice, cruising around the Floating City’s many canals on a speedboat, all loved up and dressed to the nines.
Danny also clearly found the time to do a bit of watch shopping, with the ‘Honey Badger’ wearing a bougie new honey-gold Audemars Piguet Royal Oak “Jumbo” Extra-Thin (ref. 16202BA.OO.1240BA.02) worth well over $300,000 AUD.
A luxurious take on the already highly-coveted integrated bracelet sports watch, Ricciardo’s Royal Oak features an 18ct yellow gold case combined with a fumé yellow gold-toned “Petite Tapisserie” dial. The smoked gradient on the dial is super cool – it reminds me of sunburst guitar finishes from the 70s.
Only 8.1mm thick, this reference is powered by AP’s latest self-winding movement, the in-house Calibre 7121, which has a 52-hour power reserve and gives the watch 50m of water resistance.
WATCH our guide to the watches F1 drivers wear when they’re ‘off-duty’ below.
It’s interesting to see Ricciardo wear a Royal Oak, as he’s normally more of a Patek Philippe guy. Indeed, he owns an Aquanaut as well as a number of Nautiluses including a rare off-catalogue Nautilus ‘Ruby’ (ref. 5711/112P) worth over $1.25 million AUD. Ooft.
He also owns a few Richard Mille pieces thanks to his stint with McLaren and was also recently gifted a customised TAG Heuer Carrera ‘Glassbox’ earlier this year to celebrate his return to the Red Bull fold.