Rolexes are the most stolen watches in the world

Yesterday, the global database of stolen or lost watches, The Watch Register, released a report describing a sharp increase in luxury watch thefts over the past year. According to the database, there are about 80,000 stolen watches reported in total, with 6815 reports related to the past year alone reporting a 60 percent increase in luxury watch thefts in the city of London alone, which some say is becoming the stolen watch capital of the world. Altogether, the value of all stolen watches in the database (which are therefore only the tip of the iceberg in terms of thefts) are worth $1.3 billion. Forty-four percent of these stolen watches are Rolex, with the Daytona, GMT and Oyster Perpetual models appearing to be the favorites of thieves and robbers; while Omega is the second "most stolen" brand with 7 percent of the stolen watches followed by Breitling, which has 6 percent instead. According to The Times, 90% of these watches are male given their generally higher commercial value; while 35% of watches are found within six months and 50% within a year. These recoveries are due to the now widespread presence of controls and the use of serial numbers to track each and every model that is sold or changed hands through licit and in many cases illicit channels.

Is watch theft on the rise?

While cases of watches stolen from tourists in Italy, even in downtown Milan, have caused a stir in recent years (Richard Mille watches seem to be the most popular with muggers and purse-snatchers), according to Wealth Magazine «watch thefts account for around 4% of violent robberies in Barcelona and have increased by 31% in Paris since the start of 2022». According to data reported by Watchpro, moreover, by December 2022 there were «over 200 thefts involving at least one watch valued at $5,000 or more from January to mid-November this year». A bit all over the world in short, watches seem to be an ideal commodity to steal, perhaps because of their widespread presence on the wrists of wealthy tourists, perhaps because of the ease with which they can be transported and resold. There is even an Instagram page, @watch_crime_ldn that reports daily on the thefts taking place in London with videos taken by the users themselves– this is why Bloomberg hypothesizes a correlation between the growth of the secondary market for luxury watches and the growth of thefts related to them. Also according to Bloomberg, «London’s Metropolitan Police Service launched an operation last year to address the problem after the number of knife-point robberies jumped 60% between May and June. In Paris, a police taskforce dedicated to stopping luxury watch theft grew to 30 agents». As if to say that, behind the theft and fencing of these valuable watches, a real criminal industry is beginning to be structured.