Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov's watch is now serving as "the most reliable index of the Russian economy."
The rare Richard Mille RM 52-01, rumored to have cost as much as $620,000, was spotted on Peskov's wrist on his wedding day.
Today its image crowns the new Peskov.Watch website, which aims to explain the Russian economy in terms of the now-controversial timepiece's price.
The website allows visitors to track how the price of Peskov's watch changes in accordance with the wildly fluctuating ruble. On July 11, the watch would have cost 35 million rubles, while a month later inflation had brought it to 40 million, according to the website.
"We believe that Peskov is tirelessly working on strengthening the national currency," the website says. "The price of a Richard Mille RM 52-01 in rubles is an indicator of the quality of his work."
The page also calculates how Peskov's watch could help the Russian budget.
For instance, as of August 11, the spokesman's timepiece could cover 1,260 average wages, 6,757 minimum wages, or 50,375 child-care allowances in Russia.
The website also points out the number of Peskov's monthly salaries that would be need to buy such a timepiece -- 53, as it turns out. The spokesman's official annual salary is 9 million rubles.
Peskov's wife, Olympic figure-skating champion Tatiana Navka, claimed that the watch was her wedding gift to her new husband. In an interview with a Russian tabloid, Komsomolskaya Pravda, she added that "the price everybody is discussing right now is, of course, not true -- and in general it doesn't actually matter."
The exclusive Richard Mille watch seems to be the most expensive in Peskov's collection, but certainly not the only one. According to prominent Russian opposition figure Aleksei Navalny, Peskov has at least four other timepieces that together are worth about $150,000.
