Database Shows Luxury Watch Thefts, Insurance Fraud on The Rise

Cartier owners may be pleased to know the brand has become one the most popular among luxury watches, but a new analysis also shows the watch’s popularity is rapidly rising among criminals.

Overall, luxury watch thefts—and insurance fraud—are on the rise, according to a new analysis from The Watch Register, which keeps an international database of lost and stolen luxury watches.

The database shows watch thefts have returned to pre-pandemic levels, which were at an all-time high, as watch thieves began taking advantage of people being back out on the street—and away from home, according to The Watch Register’s database.

The database now numbers roughly 105,000 lost and stolen watches—30% of that number has been amassed in the last two years.

“What that says is that we have increasingly seen insurance companies, police forces and victims coming to us to report their lost and stolen watches,” said Katya Hills, managing director of The Watch Register.

While Rolex is still beloved by watch collectors and thieves, a growing number of stolen luxury watches are the Cartier brand.

Ranking of brands registered as lost or stolen per year

Source: The Watch Register

Since 2020, the database shows an 800% increase in the match rate for Cartier watches. The match rate is number of watches reported stolen or lost that have been located, which is usually at the point of transaction—for example, by a pawnbroker checking the database before a transaction.

The watches go for $5,000 to $18,000 for gold watches, to $3,000 to $6,000 for steel watches, a good haul for thieves.

Much of the wanted and unwanted popularity of Cartiers has been driven by marketing and advertising.

The French luxury goods maker, which is part of Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA, spent nearly $100 million on advertising in digital and print in the past year, investing in premium ad units and advertising on more than 250 different media properties across multiple formats, according to a report from MediaRadar.

The watches have also gained a cultural appeal.

“It has a sort of desirability and a cachet around it,” Hills said. “It’s a luxury statement, ultimately, and it’s quite interesting that it has this desirability across a very sort of wide range of individuals…you have celebrities, you’ve got royalty who’ve been spotted wearing Cartier.”

The watch is also easily distinguished from other timepieces, adding to its appeal to criminals.

“It’s pretty distinctive and that’s important when it comes to looking at patterns of theft, because many watch robberies will happen within the course of several seconds,” she said. “The thieves will carry out thefts in broad daylight on the street from passersby walking down sidewalks, and they have literally a few seconds to grab a watch off someone’s wrist.”

These thieves are doing their homework, and not just grabbing any expensive watch. They appear to be searching for desirable brands that will retain their value on the pre-owned market, so they’ve gotten good at spotting particular brands from a distance, according to Hills.

“The Cartier Tank, for example, that’s by far the most commonly stolen Cartier model in our records,” she said.

Cartier Tanks, designed by Louis Cartier after the tanks of World War I battlefields, have a distinctive rectangular design. That makes the Tank, also among the most popular to be worn by celebrities and royalties, distinctive and easily spotted.

“They sell for a good price on the pre-owned market, because that’s ultimately where the thieves are offloading the goods,” she said.

There has been significant growth in the pre-owned luxury watch market. The total luxury watch market is valued at $75 billion, a third of which is the pre-owned market, according to the Boston Consulting Group. A report from Grand View Research shows the pre-owned market will outgrow the primary market by 2030.

Cartier’s popularity among thieves places it on the No. 2 spot above Tag Heuer and Omega on The Watch Register database. The iconic Rolex brand continues to top the list of lost or stolen watches.

The database shows the top cities for watch theft are Los Angeles, Chicago, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Houston and New York. In many of these metropolitan areas, street robberies are a common form of watch theft.

“So, this is basically, one or two thieves off and on a moped, and often with the use of violence, will attack passersby on the street in order to rob them of their watches,” Hills said.

This modus operandi is more prevalent in Europe, though it is also being seen in the U.S., she added.

In the last few years an emerging M.O. seen in luxury watch thefts involves a more sophisticated scheme that begins with victim scouting, in which groups of thieves operate together to stakeout high-end venues like restaurants, hotels and nightclubs.

The groups engage with people who they see are wearing a high value watch, often a male target. A female member of the group will communicate with the victim, while other members of the group wait at the door or outside the venue, and attack when he leaves.

“This is something that is really, really prevalent worldwide,” Hills said.

The uptick in this crime profile has prompted law enforcement to begin deploying undercover officers to pose as wealthy individuals wearing watches to apprehend thieves as soon as they attack, according to Hills.

Another common criminal activity in the U.S., particularly in Las Vegas, entails females posing as prostitutes targeting male gamblers. When they go back to their hotel room, they often drug the victim and then steal their watch and disappear, Hills said.

Another trend in luxury watches that appears to be on the rise is insurance fraud.

“A really common one that we get from insurers is reported ‘lost-in-the-sea,’ and as you know you, these high value sports models are designed so as not to fall off in the sea, right? And so, this is where we see a lot of insurance fraud, with people saying, ‘Oh, I was out on holiday and on the beach’ or ‘I went for a swim, the watch fell off, or ‘It slipped off my wrist,'” she said. “Insurance fraud is increasing and with regards to watches and some of the insurers we work with…anecdotally they’ve reported to us that they believe about 50% of their watch claims are fraudulent, which is an extremely high number and some of the insurers I’ve spoken to in the U.S. have put that figure at even higher, so it is a big problem.”