Major theft on vintage and modern Watches: calling all forum members.

Gents
Many thanks for the kind words and a big personal thanks to Tom who has been a huge help with the outreach .
At this stage all I can say it was a professional safe correctly bolted to the wall and whoever took it broke in twice ,the first was in all probability just to gauge the police response time and then they came back at 4.00 am Saturday to crow bar the safe off the wall and then carry it out of a window and into the back of an Audi car (with cloned plates) the 20 or so watches Tom has released are easily recognizable and I will post all serial numbers etc., in due course ,please be especially vigilant on fairs etc., for anyone with a large amount of 60's sea masters ,gold Geneves or vintage dive watches The list when finalized will probably include over 100 items along these lines .
Needless to say any news would be treated in confidence and much appreciated .
To those that have mentioned insurance if I get anything it will not come close to the value of the items taken and whatever comes I will no doubt have to fight long and hard for .
I will keep this forum updated in due course
Thanks again
Tony

Tony, I can only offer my condolences and best wishes at this point. We had a theft three weeks ago (clocks, glass and ceramics), I hope that the police are more use to you than they were for us. I'm sure I speak for all the community when I say we will be keeping eyes and ears open for you and very much wish you as good a resolution to this as possible. Keep your chin up.

Police -as much use as a chocolate fire guard springs to mind
Thanks again

For a few hundred bucks you can camera/alarm up your property. If you have not done it is highly recommended. This stuff is so small these days and unobtrusive, no brainer. Do it.

I’m sorry to hear about this. Bloody scum!

Returning to rip out the safe after the police is gone hardly seems an amateur’s job though...

I highly recommend for those with a sizable collection, or a business selling watches to use a vault facility, and then insure the contents. Here's an example in San Diego:

https://www.bluevaultsecure.com/

Its the cheapest option to insure. In my situation, this is about 50% cheaper than keeping in the office, then insuring the the value of inventory in the office.

Plus, you get yourself and your staff out of harms way. No amount of watches is worth your life!

Believe it or not, UK banks stopped offering safe deposit boxes some years ago. They are removing the facility from existing customers as quickly as they dare. While there are a few secure facilities setting up around the country, they're not very common yet and often are poorly placed to make using them practicable.

https://omegaforums.net/threads/ear...-022-69-don-c-w-original-1039-bracelet.64814/

I am very confident that one of the Vintage Speedmasters is the 69 I sold here via OF recently.
It has a very distinct large ding on the lower left lug.
Hence I attach the link and details of the serial number to help in advance.

Hi chaps

On behalf of Tony here is a batch of serial numbers of speedies he passed on to me

145 012 .67 25005649

145 022.69 30990161

145 022.71 32843204

Hi Tom (&Tony). I wonder if it might be more effective to start a new thread with (all?) the serial numbers and watch pics, when you have them?

It seems to me that having them buried in this thread makes them easily missed among the messages of commiseration.

What this thread has done very effectively is alert OF members to the theft. A new thread with a new title like 'Tony's Stolen Speedies/Omegas/Watch Serials' might be more easily referred to by OFers down the line?

The other advantage is that the OP can edit/add to the list in the first field on the post so readers can see all the numbers and pics first without potentially confusing scrolling having to be done.

Just a thought.

PS Very much hope we can all help track 'em down. N

Just as an aside to those of you now thinking of a safe...some wisdom I've learned from having several over the years:

1) Buy the largest and heaviest you can afford. At least twice as big as you think you need. TRUST ME, once you have a safe, everything starts collecting in it...papers, wife's jewelry, cameras, etc you get the idea.
2) Fire ratings are ungoverned for residential use here in US but MFR rating is better than nothing...longer times at higher temps are better for comparison purposes. Fire is your greatest enemy many fold over theft.
3) If its big enough to have professionally installed, make sure they lay down steel plates (NOT plywood) to wheel it into house and into position, including your walkway up to and OVER the threshold. A large safe WILL crack floor tile if only plywood is used.
4) Place into corner and slide up against wall, but still allowing door access. THEN, tilt back safe and place a strip of carpet or other thin wedge under front edge. It will make the door a wee harder to swing open and keep open, but MUCH harder to steal as the effort to tilt forward to move it becomes a great deal harder.
5) I'm not a fan of bolting to walls only because most interior walls around here are wallboard, which is useless. Wood framing is not used either so bolting to crossbeams won't work either. Your location may vary but if wall is stout enough, do it.
6) Big safes should be out in the open if you can't hide it (duh right? but I mean really out in the open..like so exposed the criminals would likely be seen). Small safes should be hidden or at least disguised(ie small safes can be dressed up like a table). What can't be seen can't be stolen.
7) Like said above, security systems are so cheap these days its crazy not to have one. Place a camera on opposite wall above reach, aimed at safe and surrounding area. Night vision capability is ideal. I am not a notification guy(ie wait for police to arrive), I'm a deterrent guy. I have the loudest mother of a siren attached to my alarm, and you won't get to it before your ears blow out and eyes bleed. You WILL want to leave as soon as possible. Cameras everywhere, lots of lights, warning signs, etc. Nobody wants what I have bad enough. Plenty of other folks to steal from. One neighbor had their valuables stolen by a guy they hired to trim the bushes. Hot day,he asked for water, they invited him in for a drink..he asked to use the bathroom.....sure right next to bedroom...stole everything in the bed tables and snuck out bedroom window. Too easy.
8) Like they say in the IT world, the greatest computer security risk is the user. If you have a security system, use it. Always. LOCK your safe when your not using it, Always.

PS: never talk about your safe, EVER. Statistically, the people closest to you are the ones most likely to steal from you. No one believes this until it happens. "Johnny would never"....... yes he would.

They're called "howlers" here. We've had them in our offices before and they make it physically painful to be inside with the alarm triggered. They are effective.

Alarms and cameras are no brainers. These systems are inexpensive and a 3rd grader can put them up. If fact if you cant figure it out, just find a 3rd grader.