Thieves target citizens who keep luxury watches:Burglars steal mostly Rolex watches in 2025; rich people invest in such timepieces earn crores

Luxury watches are no longer just a means of showing wealth and telling time, but are rapidly becoming excellent investments. This is why they are being targeted by criminals. According to a report by international watch tracking platform ‘The Watch Register’, more than 10,000 expensive watches were reported stolen or lost worldwide in 2025. This means on average one luxury watch is disappearing every hour. The numbers are interesting. The global luxury watch market size has reached ₹4.5 lakh crore. In the last decade, more than 1.13 lakh stolen or robbed watches were registered in the database. Their estimated value is assessed at ₹20,800 crore. The average price of a stolen watch is ₹14 lakh. In 2025, around 1,400 missing watches were traced and recovered, which is considered a major success. However, experts say that actual theft cases could be much higher than this. Because only half of the owners file police complaints. Many people don’t even keep their watch’s serial number on record, making recovery difficult. According to the report, more than half of expensive watch theft cases in Britain were registered in London. Between January 2022 and July 2025, 5,180 luxury watches were stolen here. Moving Assets Experts at ‘The Watch Register’ say that luxury watches are ‘moving assets’ due to their small size and high value. People are willing to spend millions of dollars to buy some vintage watches. 51% of stolen watches were Rolex In 2025, 51% of lost or stolen watches were Rolex. In the vintage watch market too, 44% of timepieces are from this brand. Richard Mille watches most expensive Richard Mille watches are very expensive. In 2024, the top 10 stolen watches were from this brand. The average price of such a watch is ₹3.23 crore. In 2025, the theft of a limited edition watch worth ₹54 crore from a house in Canberra, Australia shocked the market. Why are luxury watches being targeted by criminals? The rapidly increasing prices of luxury watches and their acceptance as investment assets have increased theft cases. They are easy to sell and hide. Secondary markets and online trading platforms have also made resale easier. According to reports, 17% of owners don’t keep record of their watch’s serial number and 8% don’t remember if they secured the number or not. This makes tracking difficult after theft.