Luxury watch sales slump as super rich fear ‘Rolex rippers’

A so-called ‘Rolex ripper’ showing off his loot

For years, if (men, mainly) wanted to show off how rich they were, they would buy themselves the most expensive watch their wallet would stretch to.

The whole point was for it to be conspicuous and tell people ‘look, I can afford this’.

But now, sales of these super-expensive timepieces are slowing down.

Some say we have even hit a ‘Rolex recession’.

Watches of Switzerland, which is the biggest retailer of luxury watches like Rolex and Patek Philippe in the UK, has seen shares drop by almost half this year so far.

It admitted in January that sales were 10% lower than expected after not enough people dropped their cash over Christmas.

And Bloomberg’s Subdial Watch Index, which assesses the watch market by tracking the value of the 50 most second hand popular models, has dropped by 40% since a peak two years ago.

Part of the reason for the slump in sales is that people are worried the wrong people are noticing the watches, which can easily cost upwards of £10,000.

There has been a rash of incidents where people were targeted in violent muggings for what was on their wrist.

Gangs in London dubbed ‘Rolex rippers’ are said to be stealing the watches to order.

There have been several shocking incidents in London, with police even launching undercover operations in Soho where they pretend to be wealthy tourists to bait thieves.

Police recorded a 60% rise in watch thefts in London in 2022, accounting for more than half of the 12,000 reported in the UK.

A designer Hublot watch seized by police after criminals tried to sell it on eBay in 2022 (Picture: Leicestershire Police/SWNS)

Since then, efforts to deal with the problem have had some success, with watch robberies in the most affected boroughs of Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, and Hammersmith and Fulham halving between summer 2022 and summer 2023.

But buyers may still be feeling leery about the prospect of being jumped for their Oyster Perpetual.

Christy Davis, co-founder of Subdial, told This Is Money: ‘People are definitely more conscious of watch theft nowadays, especially in major cities like London.’

Some retailers say other factors are to blame for the slump in sales, though, saying that in lockdown the super rich couldn’t spend their money on fancy holidays so bought watches instead. Much as the rest of us turned to buying books online for the thrill of a delivery.

Rishi Sunak’s decision to scrap the VAT refund for tourists shopping in the UK in 2021 has also been blamed for part of the change.

But watch sellers are definitely aware of the ‘Rolex ripper’ problem, though not keen to make too much out of it for obvious reasons.

Swiss watch brand Audemars Piguet has guaranteed to replace or refund customers of their watch is stolen within two years of the sale.

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