<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>Around 900 luxury watches worth almost US$13 million are missing in Japan after a site renting them out folded and its owner fled to Dubai, local media reported.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>Neo Reverse, the company that operated Toke Match, announced on Jan 31 the termination of its service and promised it would return all watches.</div><div><br></div><div>But the owners of around 900 watches worth ¥1.9 billion have not been reunited with their property, the Asahi Shimbun daily and other media outlets reported, citing a group of about 190 owners.</div><div><br></div><div>Some of the watches have even been spotted on an online auction site, prompting owners to file dozens of complaints to police around Japan.</div><div><br></div><div>The auction site’s operator Valuence Japan told AFP that at least 20 watches it handled had serial numbers matching those loaned to Toke Match.</div><div><br></div><div>“We immediately stopped circulation of these watches to prevent further damages from happening” through reselling, a spokesman said last week.</div><div><br></div><div>Half of the watches were already on the auction site before the Toke Match service was terminated, she said.</div><div><br></div><div>The Sharing Economy Association, Japan said in a statement that it had received reports that some of the watches were circulated in second-hand stores too.</div><div><br></div><div>The size of Japan’s “sharing economy” market is rapidly growing, reaching ¥2.6 trillion in the last fiscal year, the association says.</div><div><br></div><div>Neo Reverse was one of around 400 members of the organisation but was delisted on Feb 1 following complaints by the owners that their watches had not been returned.</div><div><br></div><div>Tokyo police have obtained an arrest warrant for Toke Match’s owner Takazumi Kominato, 42, on suspicion of embezzlement of a Rolex watch, Jiji Press reported yesterday, citing investigative sources, reports AFP</div><div><br></div><div>He is suspected of selling the Rolex he loaned from an owner to a second-hand dealer for ¥650,000 in January, the report said.</div><div><br></div><div>However, Kominato flew out of Japan in late February for Dubai, and police plan to put him on the international wanted list, Jiji said.</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>