Claim reports indicate that there is a rise in the use or threat of violence involved in luxury watch theft, according to the findings of a study released by The Watch Register, an established London-based international database of lost and stolen luxury watches.
Overall, 70% of insurers report an increase in such incidents over the past three years, with one in 20 (5%) describing this rise as dramatic.
The study, conducted amongst insurance loss adjusters and claims managers across the Middle East, US, Europe and Asia, reveals that, on average, insurers estimate nearly one in 10 (9%) of fraudulent luxury watch claims are linked to organised crime groups or networks.
The study found that, on average, 8% of fraudulent luxury watch claims are believed to be linked to international criminal networks, highlighting the increasingly global nature and growing sophistication of these activities.
Ms Antonia Kimbell, Recoveries and Business Development Associate, of The Watch Register, said, “Fraud involving luxury watches is not just confined to isolated or opportunistic incidents. We are seeing a growing level of organisation and international coordination, with criminal networks exploiting the liquidity of watches and the global nature of the pre-owned market. The international nature reinforces the importance of intelligence sharing and global databases to identify activity and disrupt these networks.”
The research also explored the types of fraud most encountered, with inflated valuations (35%) and counterfeit goods (31%) being the most cited examples.
The Watch Register has identified over 5,000 lost and stolen watches since the service was founded in 2014. In 2025 alone, stolen watches identified by The Watch Register have been traced across 34 countries spanning North and South America, Europe, Asia, North Africa, Australia and the Middle East, underlining both the global scale of the problem and the reach of the platform.
The Watch Register database receives lost and stolen watch data from insurance companies, police forces and theft victims globally. 50% of watches that 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, therefore, buyers should not assume that the presence of paperwork indicates legitimacy of ownership.
The Watch Register commissioned the market research company Pureprofile to poll insurers and loss adjustors of luxury watches during March 2026. M