Luxury watch thefts increase and affect buyer confidence

Around £1.5 billion, and counting. That is currently the staggering total value of stolen or lost luxury watches, according to the global Watch Register database.

With a 236% increase in the number of watches with unique serial numbers added to its global listing over the past 12 months, the Watch Crime Prevention Database calls for greater collaboration from all stakeholders “to address the escalation of crimes related to luxury watches” and “disrupting the global trade in stolen watches.”

He highlighted that the issue of crime surveillance “is a growing public concern that is affecting consumer confidence.”

It wants insurers, auction houses, watch dealers, manufacturers and law enforcement agencies to support a centralized global database for the registration of lost and stolen watches.

The call comes as Watch Register highlights “the proliferation of fragmented watch registration database services, which cause confusion and dilute data files, reducing the chances of returning a match for a lost or stolen watch.”

Katya Hills, CEO of The Watch Register, said: “A saturated and fragmented market with multiple registration sites is not helpful. It significantly increases the chances of a stolen watch not being picked up, as a dealer can search a different database than the one in which the stolen watch was registered. It also causes confusion among traders about which platform to use, which can make them reluctant to use any database. These are just some of the challenges highlighted in our report, which recommends industry-wide support for an international searchable database that will reduce the liquidity of a stolen watch.”

Hills highlighted its parent company, Art Loss Register, and its 30 years of experience in protecting trade and improving standards in the art world. “We know how important it is to provide the market with a single industry-recognized due diligence database around the world to identify lost or stolen works of art.

“In addition to sophisticated search algorithms from our global database that assist with practical identification of a watch's serial number, we employ an experienced investigation team that has the cross-border negotiation skills necessary to reunite a watch with its legal owner. once the match has been verified. made.”

The Watch Register “actively searches the global second-hand market for lost and stolen watches until they are recovered, and its database is used by watch dealers, jewelers, pawn shops and auction houses” to identify stolen watches before they are recovered. transactions.”

It operates a specialized recovery team to secure lost or stolen watches and remove them from circulation, claiming to find four lost and stolen watches per day, on average. Fifty percent of the watches he finds are found within a year of the theft and 35 percent are found within six months, he said.