Japan: “disappearance” of 900 luxury watches after the bankruptcy of a website

12 million euros worth of luxury watches disappeared in Japan following the bankruptcy of a “sharing” website that rented them and the flight of its owner to Dubai, local media reported. Owners of Rolexes and other luxury watches earned monthly commissions by lending their goods to Toke Match, a service based in Osaka (west), which rented them to its customers. But Neo Reverse, the company managing this service, announced its closure on January 31, promising to return all the watches.

The owners of around 900 watches worth a total of 1.9 billion yen (11.7 million euros), however, have not returned to their possessions, the Asahi daily and other media reported, according to which around 190 people are affected. Some of the watches were even spotted on an online auction site, prompting owners to file dozens of complaints with Japanese police.

The operator of this site declared having seen at least 20 watches passing by bearing serial numbers corresponding to those loaned to Toke Match. “We immediately stopped the circulation of these watches,” assured a spokesperson last week. The Japan Sharing Economy Association said in a statement that it had received reports that some of the watches were also circulating in second-hand stores.

The size of the Japanese sharing economy market is increasing rapidly, reaching 2.6 trillion yen (16 billion euros) over the last fiscal year, according to the association. Neo Reverse was one of around 400 members of the association, but was excluded on February 1 following complaints from owners of missing watches.

Tokyo police this week obtained an arrest warrant for Takazumi Kominato, 42, the owner of Toke Match, and placed him on a wanted list, Jiji news agency reported. He is suspected of having resold a Rolex in January for the equivalent of 4,000 euros, according to this source. Kominato Kominato, however, left Japan at the end of February for Dubai, and the police are considering putting him on the international wanted list, according to the Jiji agency.