![\"Alexander](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\/a2212977-3a4e-42fd-b6eb-301097318329.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAfter finishing an audition in London last June, Alexander Johnson was pedalling on his Lime bike through the streets of Mayfair when four men in plain clothes knocked him to the ground. <\/p>\n
Their clothing of choice was intended to help them blend in with the public and give the added element of surprise. Johnson, an actor, was wearing a Patek Philippe Aquanaut watch on his wrist. The \u00a380,000 luxury item was quickly snatched by one of the men. \u201cI had two broken ribs and a black eye before I\u2019d even worked out what was going on,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
Now without his Patek Philippe, Johnson, 38, said his experience had taught him \u201cyou can\u2019t actually have nice things in London any more\u201d. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Alexander Johnson was riding a Lime bike through Mayfair when he was attacked<\/p>\n
VICKI COUCHMAN FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n
To avoid the gaze of organised criminals, some of the super-rich have since decided to invest in luxury replica watches, known as super clones, or have opened secure deposit boxes, where owners can feel comfortable that their valuables aren\u2019t at risk.<\/p>\n
Johnson said buying replica watches was dangerous. \u201cIt\u2019s not like you get an opportunity to explain your watch to these guys and the stakes have got higher, with the robberies getting more sophisticated and more violent,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Instead, Johnson keeps his remaining two watches locked away in a Harrods deposit box. Storing valuable items at the Harrods safe deposit department, which has more than 3,000 deposit boxes, costs \u00a3525 annually for the smallest boxes and as much as \u00a318,250 for a large 8ft-high vault.<\/p>\n
![\"Patek](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\/25b666c6-0658-4ca9-87e4-84812718b4d6.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A Patek Philippe Aquanaut similar to the one stolen from Johnson<\/p>\n
ALAMY<\/p>\n
Unprecedented demand for timepieces has seen organised gangs exploit the high demand by violently robbing owners of their possessions, and online retailers have rushed to fill a gap in the market by selling replicas which have the look and feel of high-end brands but aren\u2019t the real deal.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The watch-mad Met detective calling time on Rolex robbers<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Online watch retailers such as United Luxury and Super Clone Watches advertise super clones for sale, with prices ranging from about \u00a3800 to nearly \u00a35,000. Super clone watches are designed with intricate detail and replicate genuine luxury timepieces from high-end brands such as Richard Mille, Patek Philippe<\/a> and Rolex. <\/p>\n Wealthy business people and collectors have decided that unless they are going to a restaurant, in a taxi door to door, replicas are the perfect alternative and come without the risk of losing a watch worth close to \u00a3100,000.<\/p>\n About four watch thefts are reported each day in London and, although personal robbery was down 14 per cent over the past year, the number of watch thefts has continued to increase. The Metropolitan Police recorded 156 thefts in May this year.<\/p>\n A policing source has advised against people wearing counterfeit watches in a bid to ward off potential attackers. \u201cWe\u2019ve heard about people leaving genuine watches in the safe at home and wearing a fake one. I\u2019m not sure that is a good idea,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n Cloned Patek Philippe Aquanauts are readily available online<\/p>\n Detectives have encouraged the owners of expensive watches to wear long sleeves at night, to be mindful of their visibility when dining alfresco and to remain vigilant when out in public. They have warned against posting images of valuables on social media with geo-tagged locations. Security experts have also recommended that luxury watches are insured to avoid feeding the cycle of stolen watches sold on the black market.<\/p>\n Yianni Charalambous<\/a>, who customises supercars for Premier League footballers and celebrities such as the chef Gordon Ramsay, said his clients were leaving super clones in their house safes as that way \u201cthieves don\u2019t know whether they [the watches] are real or not\u201d. <\/p>\n Charalambous said his high net worth clients tended not to wear replica watches in London as then \u201cyou\u2019ve still got a target on your back\u201d. Instead, they keep their watches in a safety deposit box and then, when they are going to places such as Dubai, they go and collect them.<\/p>\n Detective Sergeant Andy Swindells of the Metropolitan Police previously told The Times<\/a> that even tourists visiting London had become more guarded. \u201cI see many of them wearing \u00a3300 watches as they get out of their Bugattis,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Detective Sergeant Andy Swindells<\/p>\n TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL<\/p>\n In one case in February last year, a Chinese businessman\u2019s \u00a3235,000 Richard Mille watch was torn off his wrist outside the Chanel store in Mayfair. The watch was never found and Mohamed Laanani, 30, of no fixed address, admitted robbery<\/a> and was jailed for 40 months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After finishing an audition in London last June, Alexander Johnson was pedalling on his Lime bike through the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-472581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115313577044072249","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Six](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\/207a8675-b877-45f3-a2c4-96c77ccd6ae8.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Detective](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\/51b174f9-14bc-41e7-9850-7723c51c1f0a.jpg\")
<\/p>\n