Luxury watch thefts are rising however £3million had been recovered final yr
- Thieves and scammers are more and more concentrating on costly wristwatches
- Many house owners get their timepieces again because of The Watch Register
- Footballer Rico Henry was reunited together with his £30k Rolex earlier this yr
The variety of luxurious watches stolen or lacking has risen 60 per cent prior to now yr – however many homeowners, together with well-known footballers, have been reunited with their beloved timepieces with the assistance of consultants at The Watch Register.
The Watch Register is a global database of timepieces, and lets patrons and sellers register and test the historical past of a watch, together with if it has been stolen.
The newest figures from the Register present that there have been 6,815 watches newly recorded as being lacking or stolen in 2022, a 60 per cent rise from 2021. There are actually 80,000 lacking watches recorded with the Register.
An increase in watch thefts has additionally led to many insurers refusing to cowl luxurious watches, and others scaling again cowl.
Return to sender: One of the watches recovered by The Watch Register was this Rolex Daytona, value £21,000, which was stolen in a housebreaking in Kent
But The Watch Register additionally helps monitor down and reunite house owners with their lacking valuables.
Last yr the Register tracked down greater than 600 watches, with a complete worth of greater than £3million.
Individuals, insurers and merchants corresponding to jewellers and public sale homes can entry the Register to attempt to find stolen timepieces, or to test the historical past of a sure watch.
One of The Watch Register’s extra well-known purchasers was Premier League footballer Rico Henry, whose £30,000 Rolex GMT-Master II mysteriously went lacking from his pocket as he was staying in a London lodge on 19 March 2023.
Henry then listed his watch with the Register, which found the piece had been taken to a pawnbroker.
The pawnbroker then checked the Register, and found the watch actually belonged to Henry.
The sincere pawnbroker flagged this as much as the Register, who went to get the watch again – after which returned it to Henry.
Sometimes the Register tracks down watches a number of years after they’re stolen, with the posh gadgets usually travelling by a number of international locations earlier than they’re recovered.
In one instance, a £35,000 Patek Philippe was stolen by robbers armed with swords from a Bournemouth jewellers in 2019.
The watch ultimately resurfaced three years later within the US, having been purchased in good religion from a vendor in Dubai – a complete journey of greater than 11,000 miles.
In one other case, an investigation by The Watch Register led to a London watch fence being caught with a stolen Rolex Eye Of The Tiger watch, the rarest trendy Rolex produced and price greater than £150,000.
The man claimed to have purchased the extremely helpful watch in a department of Costa Coffee.
Upon being questioned, the person then produced one other couple of dozen costly watches from a plastic provider bag, claiming to be a watch fanatic – however in actuality he was a well known fence. The police later discovered one other 60 stolen watches within the man’s home.
How The Watch Register works
Adding a watch to the database prices £15 per timepiece.
Searching the Register for the historical past of a watch prices £10 for a one-off search, or as little as £1.77 if finishing up a number of checks.
If a registered watch is stolen or goes lacking, The Watch Register is normally notified when a dealer runs a test on the watch in opposition to the Register’s database.
The Register then responds, usually inside 5 minutes, to let the dealer know if the merchandise is stolen or misplaced, or whether it is clear.
The buyer, who could also be a legal or performing in good religion, will have already got given the dealer their contact particulars.
If the watch is stolen, the dealer usually holds onto it until it’s harmful to take action. The Register then reclaims the watch and/or permits the unique proprietor or insurer of the merchandise to take action.
If the proprietor or insurer picks up the watch themselves, there’s a charge of 5 per cent of the profit to the proprietor, based mostly in the marketplace worth of the watch when it’s recovered.
Street smarts: Although it isn’t best, watch consultants advocate conserving helpful watches hidden from view in public, particularly in high-risk areas
If the proprietor or insurer select to have The Watch Register’s specialist staff get better the watch, the charge is 20 per cent of the online profit.
However, a lot of watches reported as stolen by no means actually are – however the true proprietor is making an attempt to commit insurance coverage fraud.
The Watch Register managing director Katya Hills stated a ‘naked minimal’ of 10 per cent of the instances reported to it by insurers are the place they think insurance coverage fraud, rising to as a lot as 50 per cent for some insurers.
The kinds of fraud seen by the Register embrace folks making a number of claims for a similar watch with completely different insurers, or wrongly claiming a watch has been stolen.
‘One man stated he had misplaced a Rolex whereas diving within the sea, however two months later we discovered them providing that watch on the market at a pawnbrokers’, Hills informed This is Money.
‘Many are claiming possession of a watch on the premise of paperwork they’ve purchased on-line, both pretend or real papers.
‘We additionally see pretend watches, or Frankenwatches, used to make insurance coverage claims, in addition to folks exaggerating the worth of watches.’
How to maintain your watch secure
Hills, of The Watch Register, stated that insuring and registering a watch are essential.
‘A 3rd of householders we interviewed had no particular insurance coverage for his or her watch,’ Hills stated, ‘whereas 1 / 4 that had cowl discovered it solely lined them at dwelling.’
When insuring a watch, it’s subsequently necessary to verify the merchandise is insured as a person helpful, for the correct quantity and for the places you want it to be lined in.
Take cheap care when in high-risk areas, corresponding to outdoors lodges, golf equipment, bars and in vacationer hotspots the place thieves congregate, Hills added.
If you’re unfortunate sufficient to have a watch stolen, reporting it to the Register rapidly is essential.
‘The purpose being the watch is offered on, normally, inside hours of the theft, so the perfect probability of constructing a restoration is to contact us ASAP’, Hills stated.
