The Watchmaster Heist

It's a heist that could prove to be bigger than the Hatton Garden safe deposit raid in 2015. Raiders managed to get through a 1.75-meter thick steel door at a vault in Berlin, crack the security codes and overcome a fog alarm. They escaped with 1,000 luxury watches being stored for Watchmaster, one of Europe's largest pre-owned watch traders. Many of the watches were Rolex, Patek Philippe, Omega, Audemars Piguet and Breitling, and the majority belonged to customers who were hoping to sell them.

The raid dealt a devastating blow to Watchmaster, which yesterday filed for bankruptcy. It had rented space at Vallag, a secure facility operating from a former bank building in the German capital. Watchmaster said insurance would only cover the price it paid to customers for their watches. It took no account of the expenses they incurred, which meant they couldn't afford to carry on.

But the vast collection of timepieces, provisionally valued at $10m, could prove to be just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what was stolen.
According to German media the vault in which the watches were stored was not the primary target. What the raiders were really after were the contents of safety deposit boxes at the same building. We can only guess at the value of the unknown treasures they held.

The Hatton Garden raid, in London's diamond district, made global headlines. It was said at the time to be the biggest ever burglary in English history, netting around $20m, although even that may be an under-estimate. When the culprits were later captured it made headlines again, for a different reason. Nobody had expected the culprits to be a gang of seniors. Brian Reader, 76, Terry Perkins, 67, John Collins, 74, and Daniel Jones, 58, all pleaded guilty to their involvement in the raid. Three others, Carl Wood, 58, William Lincoln, 60, and Hugh Doyle, 48, were convicted after a trial.  

The case inspired a 2017 film, The Hatton Garden Job, and a 2019 TV mini-series, Hatton Garden. The gang struck over a three-day holiday weekend, bypassing the main door of the underground vault and using an industrial power drill to penetrate the 20-inch concrete walls.  They drilled three overlapping circular holes which were just big enough to "post" a man through - like a letterbox.  Once inside the vault, he then forced open the individual deposit boxes and passed the contents back through the hole.

Few details have been revealed of how the gang in Germany bypassed all the security measures, or indeed what else they stole in addition to the watches. One unconfirmed report suggests they posed as new employees of a security company to get the security codes. Meanwhile the 900 customers, who had deposited 1,000 watches between them, are none too pleased. A number have shared the email they received from Watchmaster in the aftermath of the raid. It starts: "We would like to apologise at this point that you are only being informed now. For investigative reasons, we were prohibited by the police from communicating what happened, sooner. It goes on to tell them of the burglary on 19 November, and tells them that unfortunately their watch (identified by make and model) was among those stolen.

One owner, posting on the watch forum klocksnack, said: "Where do I start with Watchmaster. I have a watch for sale here since March after 3 price reductions and 2 so called refurbishments it still wasn't sold. I checked my email this morning and I have received an email saying my watch was STOLEN from the Watchmaster safe house in Berlin. Absolutely unbelievable." This is only the beginning of a story that will run and run. In a matter of days it has led to the collapse of a company with 75 staff in Berlin, Paris and London. And we're yet to find out how the burglary actually happened, what exactly was taken, and what progress the police are making with their investigation.  Watch this space.

Have a fabulous weekend.