Local media reports claim that roughly $13 million worth of expensive timepieces have vanished from circulation in Japan. This tragedy is the result of a business that rented out these expensive watches collapsing, and its owner running away to Dubai.
Owners of luxury watches, including Rolex, trusted Toke Match, an Osaka-based company, with their timepieces in exchange for monthly deposit fees. Customers were then leased these watches by Toke Match.
Neo Reverse, the firm that created Toke Match, announced its sudden closure on January 31 and promised to give back all of the timepieces to their individual owners. However, despite promises, the Asahi Shimbun and other media sites indicate that some 900 watches worth 1.9 billion yen ($12.6 million) have not been found. The affected owners number about 190.
Some of the lost watches have unsettlingly turned up on internet auction sites, prompting many of their owners to lodge complaints with Japanese law authorities. One such auction site operator, Valuence Japan, said that they handled at least 20 timepieces that matched the ones that Toke Match had borrowed. They stopped selling these timepieces to prevent more damage.
A Valuence Japan representative disclosed that previous to Toke Match's shutdown, half of the missing timepieces were already listed for sale. Furthermore, the Sharing Economy Association, Japan, has received reports of these watches being sold in thrift shops.
According to the group, the "sharing economy" in Japan has grown significantly, reaching 2.6 trillion yen ($17 billion) in the most recent fiscal year. But occurrences like this highlight the risks involved in taking such chances.
After receiving complaints from owners, Neo Reverse, a former member of the Sharing Economy Association, Japan, was expelled from the group on February 1. Takazumi Kominato, the 42-year-old proprietor of Toke Match, has an arrest warrant issued by Tokyo police for alleged theft of a Rolex watch. According to reports, Kominato paid 650,000 yen in January to sell the Rolex to a second-hand vendor. In spite of his attempts to escape to Dubai in late February, police intend to seek foreign aid in capturing him.
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