Watches stolen (IWC, Blancpain and Zenith)

[Murph7355]

Hope it's OK to post this here.

My house was broken into last night and I had 3 watches stolen. None were with their box and papers.

- IWC 3705 ceramic Fliegerchrono. Black, black leather strap, IWC deployant clasp.

- Blancpain Flyback. Serial no 3775. Stainless on stainless bracelet. Black face with arabics.

- Zenith Class El Primero. Stainless, white face. Hour markers not arabics. Brown leather strap with Zenith deployant clasp. Model no 01.0501.400.

If anyone should see the above for sale etc, I'd be very grateful for any info. I'll be scouring eBay. I suspect they're unlikely to turn up, but want to make it as difficult as I can for the toe rags to move them on.

The watches were stolen from SW London, UK.

Thanks
Murph

[LukeBird]

Sorry to hear that Murph.
Not sure if you're a member of TZ-UK as well, but worth posting in their 'stolen' listing as well.
If you're not, I'm happy to stick your post up over there.

[ross-456]

Sorry to hear that Andy. I'll keep my eyes peeled.

[Murph7355]

Thanks fellas.

I do have an old id for TZ-UK. Will put a post up now (thanks for noting it).

Have also posted on Timezone.com.

[Disco You]

Sorry to hear that. I hope that they were insured and didn't hold too much sentimental value

[Murph7355]

Disco You said:

Sorry to hear that. I hope that they were insured and didn't hold too much sentimental value

They were insured, though I suspect one will be tricky value wise.

Not really much sentimental value as such (though I bought one as a 30th birthday present to myself if that counts ).

The bigger problem will be sourcing replacements for the IWC and the Zenith as neither have been made for some time, and the IWC is quite rare.

Pisser all round really. But could have been worse.

[Disco You]

If they were on your house insurance I think* you might have a fight on your hands to avoid ending up with a fist full of Goldsmiths/ Earnest Jones vouchers

• not from personal experience, from other tales of insurance on the inter-web-net

[RemainAllHoof]

Out of interest, did you store them in a safe or somewhere similar?

[Dominic H]

Murph,

Sorry to hear this, it happened to me in the past. I also lost hard to find watches, which is a pain.

Once you have the crime reference number, make sure you report the stolen case numbers to;

Richemont- IWC
LVMH- Zenith
Swatch Group- Blancpain

You never know, watches have been known to be returned some way down the line...

Hope this helps.

Dom H

[Murph7355]

Thanks guys.

I'll report them to the makers too (luckily the other half was wearing her's Dom - she loves it. Many thanks for that). Have posted up on the key sites and a few kind souls have provided email addresses for a lot of the 2nd hand dealers etc. Will be a miracle if any of them are returned, but you never know.

We'll see what happens with the insurers. It's gone to a claims assessor and they're getting back to me next week. Am expecting the worst on all fronts (expectation setting!), but we'll see what happens

Every drawer and cupboard in the place was emptied with anything looking like it could contain something else opened and emptied out. Nothing maliciously damaged though, which is some consolation I guess. I think speed was obviously key for them.

btw, if anyone sees legit examples of the IWC or Zenith for sale, please let me know too. I loved these watches and want to replace them. The Blancpain is relatively available so that will be replaced fairly easily (another positive!).

[RemainAllHoof]

Oh, right. Guess unless you hid them somewhere clever, they'd have found them. Good luck getting them back.

[Mobile Chicane]

Sorry to hear of the break-in.

For anything that can't be replaced - or that would be ruinously expensive to insure - consider a safe deposit box.

Mine at Lloyds TSB costs me £30 a year.

[andy tims]

Bugger

[Engineer1]

Disco You said:

If they were on your house insurance I think* you might have a fight on your hands to avoid ending up with a fist full of Goldsmiths/ Earnest Jones vouchers

• not from personal experience, from other tales of insurance on the inter-web-net

My Parent's house was broken into recently, their insurers offered chain jewellers vouchers to a value higher than the "cash" settlement but they did offer a cash settlement.

[Dan_1981]

Engineer1 said:

Disco You said:

If they were on your house insurance I think* you might have a fight on your hands to avoid ending up with a fist full of Goldsmiths/ Earnest Jones vouchers

• not from personal experience, from other tales of insurance on the inter-web-net

My Parent's house was broken into recently, their insurers offered chain jewellers vouchers to a value higher than the "cash" settlement but they did offer a cash settlement.

When we were done last year the insurers were I have to say superb.

Jewellery and watcheswise we were given the option of vouchers or cash. As some of the stuff was pretty easy to replace the vouchers that were offered were for high street branches - Signet group. When I questioned this they told me that if the items had been more difficult to replace then vouchers would have have been offered for different retailers.

As I say we were treated very well by them. Company in question? - Direct Line.

[Maxf]

Quinny said:

When I asked about my old Sea Dweller which is now unavailable new... They said they would give full value of a new Sea Dweller Deep sea, even though it is much more than the value of my old watch....

You might want to check that. You can buy a DSSD for £5.5k used (£6.6k new) now. I think you'd struggle to replace a 1665 for that kind of cash.

[RichB]

Mobile Chicane said:

Sorry to hear of the break-in. For anything that can't be replaced - or that would be ruinously expensive to insure - consider a safe deposit box. Mine at Lloyds TSB costs me £30 a year.

Firstly condolences to the O/P. I bought a proper safe like the ones you get in hotels. Took me a couple of hours one Saturday morning to fit it i.e. screw it to the wall with four stonking great 6" long bolts. It's going nowhere and it's also fireproof. It contains my wife's jewellery, my watches and sentimental stuff and any documents we want to keep safe. Easy...

[Maxf]

Quinny said:

Mine isn't a 1665 it's a lowly 16600...

Either way, the insurance would give me market value of the 16600, or would pay out for it's replacement in the form of a DSSD..... Which I think is awful so wouldn't want one anyway

Ah apologies... I know I bounced emails with someone on here who has an 'old' 1665 - I thought it was you, but clearly age is getting the better of me!

I feel sick when I think what I sold my 16600 for about 4 years back!