CRNO Solutions Ltd (Crime Reduction Network Organisation), has joined Secured by Design with its Digital Watch Identification and Theft Prevention System.
Luxury watch theft has seen a significant rise in the last number of years. In 2024, an average of 21 high-end watches were reported missing every day, up from 19 per day in 2022-2023 and just 12 per day in 2021. It’s estimated that £60 million worth of luxury watches were stolen in the UK in 2024, with organised criminal networks and serial-number fraud driving thefts across the UK and Europe.
Watch theft takes seconds, the items can be sold within hours, yet it can take days for them to be officially reported as stolen – if they are reported at all. Stolen watches move quickly through secondary markets, often crossing multiple jurisdictions before victims can even log it as stolen or obtain a crime reference number, so time is of the essence.
Police officers consistently report barriers such as:
fragmented data sources
limited verification tools at point of recovery
difficulty linking serial numbers to verified owners
no instant alerts to officers when a stolen watch resurfaces
To address these challenges, and help tackle this crime trend, CRNO Solutions Ltd has developed a state-of-the-art centralised, real-time, police accessible technology platform for luxury watches. It enables officers to access shared intelligence and verified watch data within seconds, closing long-standing gaps in information.
How it works:
CRNO provides a secure digital registry where watch owners, retailers, insurers, professional watch authenticators and law-enforcement can all operate within one verified ecosystem. More information about the Digital Watch Identification & Theft Prevention System can be found here on their dedicated member’s page. Click the link for short about CRNO video canva.com
Hazel Goss, SBD Development Officer, said, “It has been a pleasure to have CRNO join us as members of Secured by Design. They offer a unique product, a digital register for luxury watches, dedicated to preventing and combating watch crime & tackling watch thefts. I’m really looking forward to working alongside them for many more years to come.”
Stefan Delisser, Director, said, “CRNO is pleased to be joining Secured by Design and to be recognised as a police-preferred technology solution. Our mission is to support police forces, retailers, insurers and watch owners with clear, real-time data that helps prevent, detect and investigate luxury watch crime. We look forward to working closely with police forces across the UK to combat watch crime and support the recovery of stolen watches.”
Secured by Design (SBD) is owned by the UK Police Service with the specific aim of reducing crime and increasing safety for businesses and individuals.
SBD seeks to improve the physical security of buildings and the surrounding area using products such as doors, windows, locks and walling systems along with fencing systems that meet the SBD Police Preferred Specification security requirements.
SBD have many partner organisations, ranging from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government through to local authorities, housing associations, developers and manufacturers and work closely with standards and certification bodies.
SBD is the only way for companies to obtain police recognition for security-related products in the UK, through the Police Preferred Specification – a product-based accreditation scheme developed 25 years ago, which provides a recognised standard for all security products that effectively deter and reduce crime. SBD work with manufacturers and standards authorities to ensure that security standards are current and updated to keep pace with emerging crime trends.
Learn more about Secured by Design and our member companies at: https://www.securedbydesign.com/
