Imagine the worst happens and you lost your Rolex watch. Here are important steps to take to increase the chances of recovery.
What to do when you lost your Rolex?
- Check the model and serial number.
- File a loss report with the Police
- Contact your insurance company
- Contact Rolex
- List the watch in online databases as stolen
1. Check the model and serial number
If you lost your Rolex watch, the first step is to check the model and serial number. If you still have the documents of the watch, this will be easy to find. Some Rolex watches are bought and sold without box or papers. Hopefully, you wrote the serial number down somewhere.
2. File a loss report with the Police
Contacting the police is the next step. They will assist you in filing an insurance loss report. For the report, you’ll need the watch model and serial number. A police report is a written account of an incident by a police officer. The officer begins the report by stating the date and time of the occurrence, followed by a description of the circumstances.
3. Contact your insurance company
If your watch is insured, the next step is to contact your insurance carrier. To rule out insurance fraud and initiate a claim, the assurer will request a copy of the police report. If the assurer agrees to pay you, it is critical to confirm or negotiate what will happen if the watch does not arrive on time. Some insurance firms compensate the claimant but reserve the right to claim the Rolex if it turns up later. The value of the watch often grew over time…
4. Contact Rolex
Always report to Rolex when you lost your watch. Rolex used to offer a service that allowed collectors to check whether a certain Rolex watch had been reported lost or stolen in their internal database. Rolex has stopped doing this, but when a watch is brought in for service, it is still inspected for theft or loss. The watch can be hold by Rolex or handed over to the authorities if it was reported lost or stolen.
5. List the watch in online databases as Stolen-Watches.com
Even if you followed all the steps above, and even if your assurer paid you out for your loss, you should still list the watch in an online database as Stolen-Watches.com. You will increase the chances of ever recovering the watch, but you will also increase the chances to prevent the watch would be bought and sold in the future.
How big are the chances of recovering a lost Rolex?
Let’s be honest. The majority of lost Rolex watches do not get recovered. Most likely they will be found someone who will keep the watch or sell it. Therefore it is important to prevent your watch of getting stolen as much as possible and get good insurance coverage.
Nonetheless, a minority of stolen watches do get recovered. By police forces, by Rolex, and because of due diligence by buyers and sellers. Sometimes there are even finders with a moral sense who will look for the rightful owner. Therefore it is very important to always follow the steps above to increase the chances of recovery. If you don’t follow any of these steps, it is 100% sure your stolen Rolex is not likely to turn up.
It is also very important to take these steps as soon as possible. Most countries have a legal principle of “buyer in good faith” in their laws. This means that when the acquisition (of a stolen Rolex) is free of any defect, the buyer can keep the goods in certain circumstances. Imagine a purchaser who does not know the watch got stolen. Often this legal principle is elaborated with a time period. Therefore it is important to be able to claim your watch back within a certain period.
