One of the prime reasons why many insurers walk away from covering luxury Rolex, Patek, Omega, Breitling, LV and other brands is the theft risk, especially at knifepoint in public places in the UK. That said professional home burglars are always looking for evidence online of watch ownership, and then they trace the location. Many insurers will only cover a watch worth over 15K when it’s in a safe, so it’s best to check any policy T&Cs carefully.
Here’s the word;
New research from The Watch Register, which holds the world’s largest and most established international database of lost and stolen luxury watches, reveals that the theft and loss of luxury watches remains a significant risk for owners of high-value timepieces such as Rolex, Patek Philippe, Omega and Cartier.
Nonetheless, analysis of The Watch Register’s recovery efforts offers reassurance to owners seeking to protect and recover their precious timepieces. In the first six months of 2025, The Watch Register located 607 lost and stolen watches through their global database, a 26% increase on the same period in 2024.
Lost and stolen watches are typically identified when a search is conducted by a watch dealer, pawnbroker, auction house or prospective buyer; or by a police officer running checks on investigated property.
Every identification of a stolen watch is investigated and confirmed by a specialist on The Watch Register team. This kickstarts a recovery process which typically spans many months, involving multiple parties such as police, insurers, the victim and sellers in the chain of ownership post-theft. On average, five lost and stolen watches are located by the database every working day and The Watch Register team has hundreds of recovery cases ongoing at any one time.
The headway in the recovery rate is also demonstrated by the number of successfully completed recoveries made by The Watch Register team. In the first 6 months of 2025, 87 lost and stolen watches have already been physically returned to their owners, a 14% increase on the same period in 2024.
The growth in the recovery rate should provide hope to the many luxury watch owners who are out and about in watch crime hotspots, such as London, Barcelona and Los Angeles.
INCREASING RISK IN LONDON
The London Metropolitan Police reported last month that watch thefts continue to be on the rise despite overall robbery rates declining, with four stolen watches reported in the capital every day. They acknowledge that the true number could be significantly higher as many incidents go unreported3.
This view is backed up by the findings of The Watch Register’s research which shows that despite luxury watches being worth several thousand pounds, only half of those owners surveyed who have had a luxury watch stolen reported the incident to the police. The main reason cited for not reporting it was because they believed there was little chance of ever recovering their watch. Others said they failed to report a theft as it had occurred in another country.
The research also reveals that a significant proportion of luxury watch owners lack the necessary documentation to identify their watch and prove ownership. Just one in three (33%) owners say they could immediately locate the serial number of their watch. A further 42% believe that they could find it if necessary, while 17% admitted they didn’t have it recorded at all and 8% were unsure.
Katya Hills, Managing Director at The Watch Register, commented: “Luxury watches are highly desirable possessions that carry significant financial and sentimental value. We want to get the message out to owners that The Watch Register provides a concrete means of tracking down your watch, wherever in the world it has been stolen. The passport to success is recording your serial number pre-loss and reporting it to the database immediately post-loss.”
The Watch Register database, which offers a global 24/7 service, provides a simple way for purchasers of pre-owned watches to check if a watch offered for sale is reported stolen. The Watch Register combines sophisticated computer algorithms with human expertise and intervention to actively identify lost and stolen watches on the global pre-owned market.
The database is used by watch dealers, jewellers, pawnbrokers and auction houses to identify stolen watches prior to transactions. From the moment a stolen watch is located, The Watch Register’s specialist recoveries team steps in to secure the watch and facilitate a recovery for the rightful owner.
Fifty per cent of watches The Watch Register finds are located within a year of the theft and 35% within six months. One third of the stolen watches located by The Watch Register database are offered with box and papers, many of which are fake, therefore buyers should not assume that the presence of paperwork indicates legitimacy of ownership.
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