INDUSTRY MATTERS: One man’s mission to stamp out watch thefts

Watch Recovery International is a specialist recovery firm dedicated to tracing, negotiating, and repatriating stolen watches, as well as resolving title disputes down the chain of ownership. It’s the brainchild of Christopher Marinello, who is also the CEO of Art Recovery International. Marinello spoke with Watch Insider’s Daniel Malins about his frustrations with law enforcement and lax collectors, and why he’s on a one-man mission to stamp out the blight of watch thefts once and for all.

Daniel Malins: What is your background and how did you end up working in art and now watch recovery? 

Christopher Marinello: I’ve been a lawyer for over 40 years, and my speciality is recovering stolen art. If you look at our website — artrecovery.com — you’ll see on our case studies page $600 million worth of artwork that I’ve recovered over the years. That’s everything from Nazi-looted artwork to rare Ferraris.

What’s happened over the last few years is that every single day there’s a new stolen watch case on my desk. So, we decided we needed to spin off a subsidiary called watchrecovery.com that will just deal with the issues involving stolen watches. It’s not just recovering watches for theft victims, it’s also helping dealers, collectors, and any kind of online seller that is handling fine timepieces with how to negotiate this space because it’s extremely convoluted, and it’s good to give them an opportunity to talk to a lawyer without having to send money through the internet. 

DM: If I have had my watch stolen, what help can you be? Do you have an official tie-in with the police, for instance?  

CM: What’s important is that all high-end watches are identifiable by their serial numbers, and they show up from time to time. They show up at auction houses, they show up online at various dealers, they show up at the service centres of the major manufacturers, all who maintain databases of stolen timepieces. As soon as someone calls me to say: “My watch was stolen last night, what do I do?” I tell them, number one, to file a police report. Without that report, it’s going to make it very difficult for me to recover a stolen watch, whether it’s two years from now or five years from now. Without a police report, whoever possesses that watch is going to say: “How do we know it was really stolen?” I need that police report, even if people think the police are not going to do anything. 

Then, if they were insured, I tell them to call their insurance company. I also tell them to put it on the databases of Rolex, Patek [Philippe], AP [Audemars Piguet], etc. and to try to get their police officer to put the stolen watch on the Interpol database, or any of these private databases that exist out there. We’re also building one, but there are several watch registers that are private or publicly available. The more widespread you register these serial numbers and these stolen watches, the better the chance that it’s going to be found. 

We also offer people, at no cost, Theft Alerts and Reward Notices that we post on our website and socials without the owner’s details, with the crime reference number, and we get tips from people all the time that say: “Oh, I know who’s selling this watch, it was just offered to me.” Sometimes we’ll pose as a buyer, sometimes we’ll get law enforcement involved. 

So, back to your original question, how do we do this? When we find the watch being offered for sale, or the victim is notified that their Rolex has appeared at a Rolex service centre, it’s funny what people think is going to happen. They think Rolex is just going to hold the watch and hand it back to them. They can’t, because someone has brought it into that Rolex service centre, so that is a customer of theirs, and you’re the original theft victim who reported it stolen three years ago, so you’re also a customer of theirs. They are not going to be the judge and the jury. They will hold it for a short period of time until the parties reach a civil resolution, or until a police officer seizes it. 

DM: How can there be a civil resolution with two people making equal claims on the same product? 

CM: That’s what I do. I contact the possessor of the watch, I ask where they got it from, and I show them the documentation. I’m very transparent, we show them evidence that it was stolen and explain that they need to cooperate. I will try to negotiate a resolution with that person based on the strength of the claim. I don’t want to get too legalese on you, but every jurisdiction is different. The UK and the US are very pro-victim — their laws help victims get their stolen property back. Whereas in a civil law jurisdiction like France, Switzerland, and Germany, you can actually get good title to stolen property if you bought it at auction, not knowing it was stolen, and did some modicum of due diligence. 

I sort out the different laws of different countries where the watch was stolen, where the watch was found, who bought it, what they knew or what they should have known, what type of dealer we are dealing with, and so on. Dealers come to me and say: “Look, I bought a watch, I didn’t know it was stolen, it got flagged up at Rolex, what do I do?” and I will help them if they did things the right way. If they bought it with proper documentation, I will help them get their money back from whoever sold them the stolen watch, and we will ‘downline’ the sale. 

DM: How do you get through the quantity of work? How big a team do you have? And who’s funding this? 

CM: I will donate my time to someone for a low-value watch. I did it for a kid who was given a £2,000 watch by his dad for graduation, for example. But if you can pay, you should pay. Negotiating these disputes involves an enormous amount of work. I offer an hourly rate but most don’t want to pay an hourly rate, but will pay a success fee. So, if there’s no recovery, there’s no fee. It’s not the worst thing in the world because a lot of these watches build value, so there’s a little bit of play there where they may have bought it for £100,000 and it’s now worth £200,000, so they have every incentive for getting their watch back. 

Plus, I do a lot of work for insurers. I work for almost all the major watch insurance companies and if you’re insured for the theft, the insurance companies pay my fees, so the victim doesn’t have to pay at all. This is another reason why I’ve been yelling at watch collectors for 10 years now to get their watches insured, because why is it that 80% of the watches that I recover are not insured? It’s driving me crazy!

DM: I would’ve predicted that it was the other way around. I’d have thought 80% of watches were insured and only 20% uninsured.

CM: Here’s the thing: people from the Middle East, like Dubai, don’t insure their watches because there’s no theft there. You leave your Rolex on your Mercedes and it’s going to be there when you come back out of the shop. That’s not the case in London. People think nothing is going to happen to them until it does. That’s when they admit that they weren’t insured or they try to claim the loss under their homeowner policy. They don’t realise that there’s language in some insurance policies that says if you leave the house, or if you go on vacation, you’re not covered. 

So, I urge people to review their policies, maybe take out a specialist policy for their watch collections and update them. I had one guy have 10 Patek Philippe watches stolen, and he never updated his insurance policy. These things had increased in value maybe 100% and he was paid the value from 10 years ago. There are a lot of things I need to tell people, and I’m giving away a hell of a lot of free advice if people would just pay attention!

DM: In your opinion, what are the chances of a mainstream watch dealer carrying out the necessary diligence before buying a watch? If they’re not, what would your advice be to these people and businesses?

CM: You need to do these checks. You can contact Rolex, Patek, AP, Richard Mille, or you can contact me and I’ll contact them. A lot of the more respectable dealers are doing that, but the guys that are buying and selling on Instagram and Facebook — I call them the ‘watch bros’ because they always call me ‘bro’ — think that there’s a law called ‘finders keepers.’ No, there is no law called ‘finders keepers.’ If you buy a stolen watch and you don’t check it out, you can lose your entire investment.

It’s just like the art world. You’ve got to look at the provenance of the watch, and not only whether the watch is stolen, you’ve got to do background checks on who you’re dealing with. I have so many clients that call me about scams. They’re about to buy a real watch, but it turns out they end up paying in crypto, they get no watch, they get no money, and they’ve been scammed. You must do due diligence on both the watch and the dealer. 

DM: So, even if you enter into a transaction in good faith, it’s on you to make sure you’re not buying a fake? For a dealer or auction house, might there also be legal repercussions on top of reputational damage?

CM: You’re right, it’s a few things. Number one, there’s a chance that if a dealer doesn’t cooperate with me, I can get a police officer to go in and seize a watch in the middle of the day, in between a negotiation for a legitimate transaction. You don’t want that. 

I feel bad for the dealer because I’ve recovered seven watches so far that all had certificates of clearance from one of these watch registers, and they were still stolen! These watch registers don’t have every single stolen watch listed on their database. 

DM: Is there a sliding scale when it comes to due diligence, or is it black and white? If you show you did X amount of background checks, for instance, does that cover you? 

CM: It doesn’t cover you at all. All it does is say to me that you’re a good dealer that tried to look into the watch you were about to buy and, unfortunately, you bought a stolen watch anyway. I’m not going to treat you the same as somebody who bought a watch from somebody off the street without doing any checks. I’m going to say: “Oh, you’re a legitimate dealer, I feel bad for you, and I will try to get you your money back.” And I will ask you as a dealer: “Where did you buy it from? Who is this guy that sold you the watch? Where’s your receipt? How much did you pay? Was this a fair price or a red flag?” And then we’ll go after this guy together for your money. 

DM: You mentioned that you’re at the early stage of developing a private register, but right now you’re essentially a service provider, right?

CM: That’s right. We have our own register, and the technology we’re developing is going to be miles ahead of any other register that’s out there. The key to what we are doing is that we cannot and will not charge dealers or collectors to check that register — a bit like the Enquirus database that Richemont came out with. It’s a great thing to provide a free service for dealers to go and check and make sure they’re not buying something stolen. The problem with some of the watch registers that are out there is that they are paid by dealers and auction houses who pay subscription fees to check everything they’re selling.  If, while searching, a match is made, they will turn around and try to represent the victim also. 

Let’s say you’re a dealer and you check your Rolex with one of these watch registers, and you pay them £100 to check the watch and issue a Certificate, and they say: “Well, we can’t give it to you because the watch is stolen,” they then turn to the victim who put that watch on their register and say, “Hey, we found your watch.” There’s a serious conflict of interest there. They’re trying to represent both sides, but you can’t. 

If you have a lawsuit, you can’t have one lawyer representing both parties. It’s unethical, and it’s a complete conflict of interest. They are not acting in your best interest. Some of these watch registers are paid by the auction houses like Sotheby’s or Christie’s to check every watch that they’re selling. You can’t take money from both sides, it’s just wrong. 

DM: I guess in your case you only take money from the victim of a watch theft?

CM: That’s right. You can’t take money from both sides because I have seen one of these watch registers operate, and the way they work is whoever pays them more is who they side with. If a dealer comes to me and says: “Look, I checked one of these watch registers, and they’re flagging up a stolen watch, but they won’t give me any information,” then I will sort it out and contact the manufacturer. I’ll find out why it’s considered stolen, what law enforcement agency was involved, and whether it’s a live police report. Sometimes these victims have actually recovered their watches and never told the manufacturer, or never told the watch registers, and it’s not stolen, or an insurance company was involved and the person claiming the watch isn’t legally entitled to claim it. So, there are a lot of different issues involved with this type of thing. It gets even worse when you jump from one jurisdiction to another. 

DM: I can imagine. Can you give me a rough idea of how many cases you would be presented with in a given month? 

CM: Every day I’m getting one or two watches reported to me. The summer is really bad because everyone’s taking their watches on vacation and they’re getting robbed at every vacation spot. Milan is really bad right now, Rome is really bad, Paris is terrible, London has always been bad. People are going out to clubs on their vacations, and they’re getting robbed. Also sporting events — I must have had 11 watches reported to me from World Cup events. It’s a nightmare. I’ve never been busier — that’s the reason for the new watch recovery service. 

DM: What’s the solution for reducing these thefts? You mentioned Dubai earlier, and part of the reason there’s so little crime there is because the consequences of those crimes are quite significant. Is it as simple as that or am I being a bit reductionist? 

CM: No, you’ve hit the nail on the head. The reason that there’s less crime in Dubai is because they take it seriously and the consequences are huge. Whereas in the UK, you can steal a watch and put it through a gang and get it out of the country and, if you find it, the police are not going to do a hell of a lot about it. 

I currently have a case involving a stolen Patek Philippe watch that has been sitting at Patek Philippe in Geneva for 17 months. The watch was stolen in the UK by a gang in a major robbery of 11 watches. The watch shows up in Dubai, purchased by an Israeli who claims that he bought it from a Chinese seller using crypto with no documentation and a fake Patek Philippe certificate. The watch is now sitting in the legal department at Patek Philippe waiting for the UK police to take action. People think that if the manufacturer finds your watch brought in for service, they’ll just hand it back to you, but that’s not going to happen. They can’t and won’t do it. You need to have a lawyer or a representative to sort this out for you. 

DM: Because there’s no definite proof?

CM: No, we’ve proven to Patek Philippe that the watch was stolen, but they don’t want to give it back to the victim, they want law enforcement to take it. That’s the Swiss way. Manufacturers don’t want to be the judge and jury, which is fine, but don’t expect law enforcement to ride in on a white horse and seize that watch and bring it back to the victim. We need law enforcement to be more proactive. At this point, they think watches are a rich person’s problem and they really don’t care. They’ll give you a crime reference number and say: “I hope you were insured, give this to your insurance company.”

DM: Am I correct in saying you’re a one-man band, or do you work with other people? 

CM: On the watches, I’ve got a colleague named Fred Ramirez outside of Paris who I’m working with. He’s handling all the relationships with the French-speaking watch industry. I’ve got a technology person in America who’s developing the new database and I’ve got a few lawyers that I work with around the world, both on the art recovery side and the watch recovery side. So, if we need to seize something in Switzerland or Germany or in the US, that’s not a problem). I have a group of professionals stable of people that we work with because the watch trade is so international. 

DM: If your business goes successfully, there’ll be more recognition for the service you’re providing and you’ll be taking on more work. Have you got systems in place that would allow you to scale up fairly seamlessly?

CM: To be honest with you, what I am preaching is actually going to reduce my business if people listen to me. I had a guy sell two of his Patek Philippe watches at a service station outside of London. Of course he didn’t get the money and his watches are gone. But why do that? All he had to do was pick up the phone and say: “Christopher, I’m thinking of selling my two Patek Philippes, what do I do? Should I meet at a service station?” I would have said: “Are you out of your mind?” I would have told him to use an escrow service, have somebody hold on to the two watches until they check out as okay, have a bank hold the money, and then make the exchange.  We can offer those escrow services, so you don’t get scammed.

If people listen to me, I will have less work, and I don’t mind that because I want to make a dent in this problem. You work hard for your money, you save up to buy a special watch, and then some jerk steals it from you when you’re going out to dinner in Mayfair. It’s just wrong, and it drives me mad that people trust people. All the time, people are loaning watches to friends who then sell them. People are going out to strip clubs, getting drunk, and finding that their watches are disappearing. They’re doing stupid things, and if they listen to an independent voice, maybe they’ll be a little bit more careful.

DM: You’re a modern Batman in a way, just with less of a cape.

CM: I don’t have a gun or a badge, so I can’t arrest anyone, but if a possessor is not going to cooperate, I can contact the police. Recently, there was a theft just outside of Harrods. We have video of the theft taking place — somebody broke into a Ferrari and took a bunch of luxury items including a watch. We found one of the items being sold online. Somehow, we managed to acquire the watch without the seller being notified, and then we got a police officer to pay him a visit in the UK, and he’s going to seize all the stolen goods. 

I have a great deal of respect for good-faith buyers, dealers, and collectors that didn’t know that they bought something stolen. It happens to everyone, it happens to the best auction houses in the world. But what separates the good dealers from the bad ones is how you act when somebody says: “I’m sorry, you bought a stolen watch.” The right answer is: “What do I do? Can you prove that it was stolen? I would like to cooperate, here’s my documentation. Can we work out some kind of a deal? I’m out a lot of money. Is there any kind of settlement that you can offer me?” Not these ‘bros’ that call me and say: “Hey, finders keepers, dude. I paid good money for this, I’m not going to return it.” I’m going to send the police to those people. 

All you need to do is look on Instagram — watch crime’s happening everywhere. You shouldn’t buy from people that aren’t going to back up their sales. We’re not talking about a couple of thousand pounds, we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of pounds being spent on watches from people that don’t know the risk of Chinese fakes and ultra-fakes, people are getting scammed. 

I will help anybody out provided they are honest and transparent. You can call me on WhatsApp, I’ll listen to the story. I also feel bad for dealers that are trying to run a business and get stuck with a lot of these guys that approach them with bargains. It’s hard to pass up when someone brings in a watch that you know you could make a good profit on, but you have to realise that you’ve got to do your due diligence or you risk losing everything. That’s the law. 

In the UK and in the US, you cannot get title to stolen property through the chain of the thief. That’s our underlying, common-law principle: if something is stolen, that chain of everyone who handles that stolen watch is not conveying good title to the next person.

This article was first published in the August 2026 edition of Watch Insider.