Watch worth £1m takes top spot on UK's suspected crimes database

Limited-edition Richard Mille featuring skull in centre of face is one of three from the brand topping missing list

The Patek Phillipe 5130p 014 World Time Dubai edition. Photo: Christie's

A watch worth £1 million ($1.27 million), one of only 10 made, was added to a UK watch-theft database last year, making it the list's most expensive item, The National has been told.

The limited-edition Richard Mille Rm 52-01 model has a skull in its centre where the hands are held in place and was placed by The Watch Register, a global crime prevention database.

There has been an explosion in the market for luxury watches, new and second-hand, and demand has attracted criminals as well as speculators.

A Richard Mille model Rm 035-2, worth £400,000, and an Rm 011, with a value of £250,000, were the second and third most expensive watches stolen in 2023, The Watch Register said.

A £200,000 Roger Dubuis Excalibur and a Patek Phillipe 5980/1R-001 worth £140,000 complete the top five.

The next most expensive watch stolen was another Richard Mille, an Rm-005, valued at £130,000, followed by an FP Joune Octa Zodiaque worth £125,000.

At number eight was a £110,000 Patek Phillipe 5130p 014 World Time Dubai edition, followed by an AP Royal Oak chronograph worth £75,000. Rounding off the top 10 is an 18ct gold and diamond-set Rolex Daytona valued at £65,000.

The watches were reported missing by police, insurers and private owners last year, although some were taken earlier. About 90 per cent of the items on the list were stolen rather than being lost.

The £1 million watch, the subject of a police investigation, is the first seven-figure item to appear on the database. Others have been missing for years and may have attained a similar value in the meantime.

"Street gangs are adept at spotting high-value watches as are staff in the hospitality industry who can get a close look," said Watch Register chairman Julian Radcliffe, citing a recent case in which a restaurant security guard tipped off thieves.

"So it is vital the resale of watches is prevented by due-diligence searching of our database and matches followed up to give police more intelligence.”

The Watch Register says the value of luxury timepieces stolen in the UK passed £1 billion in a year for the first time.

The register recently announced a significant expansion of its database, which will receive all the stolen-watch data lodged by London's Metropolitan Police.

The data, which includes about 260,000 stolen watches, dates back almost three decades to the introduction of the crime reporting system in 1995.

The increase in thefts has meant a demand for watch-finders that recover stolen timepieces, such as Art Recovery International, run by art student-turned-lawyer Christopher Marinello.

A gang of thieves from Algeria and Libya recently admitted to stealing designer watches worth hundreds of thousands of pounds in a two-month crime spree in London.

Salem Belckacem, 30, led the gang who rode around on mopeds looking for wealthy victims in Mayfair and other high-end areas of central London.

They stole watches worth between £10,000 and £100,000 each, none of which have been recovered.

The fear of having luxury watches ripped from their arms is forcing wearers to be more vigilant during a surge in thefts, a survey by the specialist Watchfinder & Co said.

Two thirds of watch owners say the current crime wave is making them more observant when wearing their watch and 36 per cent are keen to do more to try to deter thieves, the survey found.

Of those whose watches were stolen, 68 per cent believe their timepiece has already been sold on.

The researchers found only one in five stolen watches is recovered, meaning of the 100,000 snatched across the UK, 80,000 have yet to be returned to their owner.