Theft And Fraud Continue To Be A Threat In The Luxury Space—Here’s One Way To Protect Your Collection

In particular, over the past five years, we've seen watches and jewelry gain popularity and status as asset classes. As a direct result, these luxury goods have become targets for theft and fraud amid the boom in the secondary market. Of course, there are steps you can take to protect against theft, from traveling smart to safe home storage and specialty insurance products, to even being intentional and conscious about how you wear your watches and jewelry out into the world day to day. When it comes to buying in the pre-owned market, there are also practices you can follow to educate yourself on the landscape and vet sellers. Still, there's an added layer you can incorporate into your collecting journey, and you don't have to wait until that unfortunate moment when theft or fraud may occur to register your watch with one or both of the world's top two databases in the luxury watch and jewelry space. Today, in this two-part story, we'll look at one of these organizations and how best to use it to safeguard your collection.

The Art Loss Register was founded in London back in 1990 and has since become the world's largest private database of lost, stolen, and looted art, antiques, jewelry, and collectibles. By the 2010s, the organization noticed an uptick in watch and jewelry thefts and fraud. At the time, there was also a gap in the market when Rolex stopped making its lost-and-stolen database available to the public. "As a buyer or a pre-owned trader, you used to be able to contact Rolex for a serial number check," explains Katya Hills, Founder and Managing Director of The Watch Register. "But around 2011, the brand limited this service to its authorized retailers, and there was really no other service like this for watches."

Hills was working at The Art Loss Register at the time, noticed the void and market need, and saw an opportunity. In 2014, she founded The Watch Register as a dedicated platform within The Art Loss Register's portfolio. "One of the first services we developed was rapid serial checks," Hills shares. "We knew if a store had a seller come through the door, they'd need to be able to make a decision in minutes about purchasing the watch." Today, the platform offers checks via WhatsApp, iMessage, and text message, so that people on the move at a trade show or doing business coffee can do a quick serial number check and get instant results. The cost of a serial number verification is $16 per individual check or as low as $2.50 for users checking higher volumes of watches.

In addition to fraud prevention, loss recovery is the second pillar of The Watch Register. Here, collectors can register a timepiece that has been lost or stolen for $20 per watch. The Watch Register then operates on a no-win, no-fee basis—they charge a location or recovery fee only if a recovery is successful. Using their comprehensive database of over hundreds of thousands of items, The Watch Register works closely with law enforcement agencies, insurance companies (like Hodinkee Insurance), and the victims themselves to investigate, locate, and return the items to the rightful owner. "It's one thing finding a stolen watch, but it's another to successfully return it to the victim," observes Hills. "And it's really the strength of our international law enforcement network and our trade partners that allows us to do that."

Thanks to this approach, the recovery rates are increasing. Looking at 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. Among those recovered timepieces, 87 were physically returned to their owners, a 14% increase on the same period in 2024. However, it's important to note that these recoveries are the direct result of collectors having the best possible details on their missing watch. "The most important piece of information an owner can have is their serial number," Hills emphasizes. "This is the unique identifying feature that makes your watch traceable. And when you're storing this number along with any ownership documents, such as purchase receipt, watch papers, or photographs of your watch, you should securely place these in a location separate from the watch itself in the event of a theft in your home." It's also worth noting that if you're a Hodinkee Insurance customer, you have the ability to include a serial number for every watch you add to your policy.

In addition to safely storing your watch and its documentation, insurance is another important part of safeguarding your collection, and, of course, Hodinkee Insurance is always here to help with this layer of protection. However, you don't have to wait to make an insurance claim before you report your lost or stolen watch to The Watch Register. "The best chance of recovery happens in the first few days, before the watch can change hands, move locations, or be modified in any way," Hills clarifies. "Our quickest recovery case was in a matter of hours," she continues, "but if you're just learning about The Watch Register, you can still submit your stolen watch—I think our oldest recovery case was 25 years old."

For more information on The Watch Register, you can visit their website for additional details and to register your timepieces. Of course, for all your insurance needs, you can send us an email at [email protected]. In the meantime, stay tuned for part two exploring the Richemont group's watch and jewelry database, Enquirus.