80,000 luxury watches worth $1.73b reported missing in theft surge last year
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Rolex is the most targeted brand, followed by Omega and Breitling.
PHOTO: AFP
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GENEVA – Luxury watches worth more than £1 billion (S$1.73 billion) have been reported as stolen or missing due to a surge in the number of thefts in 2022.
Around 80,000 watches have been registered as stolen or missing with The Watch Register, a company that helps owners, auction houses and dealers identify stolen timepieces for a fee.
Some 6,815 watches were added to the list in 2022, a 60 per cent increase compared with the previous 12-month period, the company said on Monday.
As secondary-market prices for the most in-demand models – from Rolex, Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe – surged during the Covid-19 pandemic, so too did watch theft and crime.
London’s Metropolitan Police Service launched an operation in 2022 to address the problem after the number of knife-point robberies jumped 60 per cent between May and June.
In Paris, a police task force dedicated to stopping luxury watch theft grew to 30 agents.
Rolex is the most targeted brand on The Watch Register’s database, accounting for 44 per cent of timepieces, followed by Omega and Breitling. The company has been compiling data for over 30 years.
“The considerable value and prestige of these high-end timepieces continue to attract the attention of sophisticated and international criminal networks, making them a prime target for theft,” said Ms Katya Hills, The Watch Register’s managing director, in a statement.
Some brands have taken radical steps to address the problem.
Audemars Piguet, maker of the Royal Oak, said in April that it would offer to replace clients’ stolen watches as part of a new service programme that would run for two years. BLOOMBERG
