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Sir Jim Ratcliffe has joined a swathe of wealthy individuals who have decided to stop flaunting their luxury watches in London as thousands get stolen every year.<\/p>\n
A stubborn rise in watch robberies has scared Londoners from showing off their timepieces, and Ratcliffe, who regularly works in the city, has become the most high-profile individual to declare a change in behavior when he\u2019s walking in the capital.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t wear a watch in London, and I just need to be a bit wary, a bit careful,\u201d Ratcliffe told the Sunday Times<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Ratcliffe, one of the wealthiest people in the U.K., recounted a murder over a Rolex picked up on Ineos\u2019s CCTV cameras at the group\u2019s headquarters in Knightsbridge.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe died in a pool of blood because somebody tried to take his Rolex and he resisted. About a year ago we had three guys in hoodies, with machetes, right outside the office, opposite Harrods.\u201d<\/p>\n The Ineos CEO and minority owner of Manchester United lamented police officers for failing to adequately deter criminals.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have enough prison space. I mean, this didn\u2019t just happen. We\u2019ve been talking about the prisons being overcrowded for ten years.\u201d<\/p>\n More than 6,800 watches were reported stolen<\/a> last year, an increase from more than 6,000 in 2022. Since 2018, some 43,000 watches have been stolen in the capital through burglaries, robberies, and thefts.\u00a0<\/p>\n The wealthy boroughs of Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea routinely rank among the highest for robberies.<\/p>\n Robbers often target people wearing Patek Phillipe and Rolexes, which sell for a high value on the second-hand market, by offering prospective victims drugs or access to sex workers outside night clubs before luring them to an alleyway to carry out a robbery.<\/p>\n Ratcliffe is one of many wealthy individuals who appear to have shunned flaunting their watches in public for fear of becoming a victim.<\/p>\n Valuations for second-hand watches have dipped more than 20% in the last two years, according to the Bloomberg Subdial Watch Index<\/a>, which tracks the price of the 50 most-traded watches.\u00a0<\/p>\n The decline<\/a> is largely the result of traders who piled into the market during the COVID-19 pandemic opting to invest elsewhere for better returns.<\/p>\n However, watches becoming a target of violent theft may also be contributing to falling valuations.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a bid to halt an increase in robberies, Met police officers carried out a series of sting operations<\/a> against watch thieves in London in 2022 and 2023, going undercover as potential targets of theft while wearing luxury timepieces.\u00a0<\/p>\n The two operations in 2022 and 2023 came after 300 watches worth a total of \u00a34 million were stolen between April and September 2022.<\/p>\n One officer would wander alone in a Westminster street at night before being approached by a group of men. Other undercover officers nearby would then jump in once a robbery ensued.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Met says these stings have led to a reduction in watch thefts in Westminster.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nSting operations<\/h2>\n