TOKYO: Around 900 luxury watches worth almost $13 million are missing in Japan after a site renting them out folded and its owner fled to Dubai, local media reported.

The owners of the Rolexes and other pricey timepieces earned monthly deposit fees by loaning them to Osaka-based Toke Match, which would then rent them to customers.

Neo Reverse, the company that operated Toke Match, announced on Jan 31 the termination of its service and promised it would return all watches. But the owners of around 900 watches worth 1.9 billion yen ($12.6 million) have not been reunited with their property, the Asahi Shimbun daily and other media outlets reported, citing a group of about 190 owners.

Some of the watches have even been spotted on an online auction site, prompting owners to file dozens of complaints to police around Japan. The auction site’s operator Valuence Japan said that at least 20 watches it handled had serial numbers matching those loaned to Toke Match.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2024