Watch Industry SITREP - January 2026

FBI’s Most Wanted Man Captured After Fake AI Account Posts Watches, CIA Officer who Bought Rolex Watches with KGB Cash Dies, Reporter’s Smartwatch Seized by FBI, a $500k Rolex Waitlist Scam, Watch Theft at 35,000 Feet, & Machete-Wielding Rolex Burglars 

By Benjamin Lowry

We did it, guys. After four long weeks, the month of January, and more importantly, Dry January, are at an end. So what should we do with our new, well-rested, fitter-than-usual, obnoxiously clear-headed selves? It’s been an action-packed few weeks, and it’s officially time to jump into this month’s totally sober W.O.E. SITREP or Situation Report. 

If you’re new here, welcome to the club. The SITREP is our monthly all-you-can-eat buffet of watches, espionage, current events, and national security, paired with our well-intended attempt at informed commentary. Now and then, we may touch on politically charged topics, but to be clear, nothing we do here is political. Using watches as our lens, we observe, report, and analyze just about anything relevant to W.O.E. Sometimes, we even do a good job. 

From one of the world’s most wanted men being captured after an Instagram account that has since been proven fake posted a Patek Philippe, to the proceeds of international espionage being used to buy luxury timepieces, to watch robbery at 35,000 feet, to machete-wielding Rolex thieves, we have a lot to get through. We'd better get started… 

Olympian & Accused Drug Kingpin Arrested in Mexico After Posting a Patek Philippe to Instagram - Except It Wasn’t Really Him

A reportedly AI-generated Instagram post from an account claiming to be Wedding shows a rare Mercedes behind a Patek Philippe Nautilus Flyback Chronograph.

On 22 January, a Hollywood-like international crime drama turned toward a riveting conclusion with a diamond-encrusted Patek appearing to fall right in the middle of the action. After being added to the FBI’s Most Wanted List in March 2025, Olympic snowboarder turned alleged cartel boss Ryan Wedding was (reportedly) captured by authorities in Mexico a couple of weeks ago. Wedding, who competed with Team Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in dual giant slalom, is charged with multiple felonies, including drug trafficking, leading a criminal organization, three counts of murder, and one attempt to commit murder. Leaning into the cartel cliché, Wedding is also known for his love of luxury goods. 

The story takes a strange turn as a day before his arrest, an Instagram account claiming to be Wedding shared a Patek Philippe 5990/1400G-001, a blinged-out version of the Nautilus Flyback Chronograph that will set you back at least a million dollars, if Google is any judge. According to press reporting, the account was actually fake, with AI-generated photos. The post’s cryptic caption read: “They took away my toy, but no one can take away what I’ve learned.” To be honest, we don’t quite know what to make of this one.

A photo shared by law enforcement (left) shows Wedding wearing an as-yet unidentified watch, with a since-deleted post from his probably fake Instagram account showing a Hublot Unico King Gold Rainbow. 

Another (apparently real) photo shared by authorities as part of the manhunt shows the Wedding wearing what could be a gold Audemars Piguet (or a fashion watch), while yet another deleted, probably fake Instagram post flexed a $100k Hublot Unico King Gold Rainbow. Some on social media were quick to infer that Wedding’s (now-discredited) Patek/Mercedes post somehow led to his arrest the following day, but these days, it is becoming really hard to know what is real and what is contrived. In any case, the idea that someone would fake Wedding’s account and place watches front and center in an effort to manipulate public opinion once again evinces the power of timepieces as symbols. 

I know Netflix is hard at work on a documentary miniseries and/or biopic covering Wedding’s life (we’re thinking Joel Kinnaman or Boyd Holbrook for the role of Wedding), and I am begrudgingly prepared to admit I will be a dedicated viewer. 

CIA Officer Convicted of Selling Secrets to Russia (& Buying Rolex Watches with the Funds) Dies at 84

CIA Case Officer turned Russian spy Aldrich Ames passed away in federal prison on 05 January. Ames was a CIA Case Officer who, according to W.O.E., became one of the most damaging spies in American history. In April 1985, Ames walked into the Soviet Embassy and volunteered to spy for the KGB. Over the next nine years, he compromised scores of CIA operations targeting the USSR, including the identities of at least ten CIA human assets who were later executed or imprisoned.

Between 1985 and his arrest on 21 February 1994, Ames received more than $2.5M from the KGB and later the SVR, making him one of the highest-paid foreign agents in Russian intelligence history. He used this money to fund a lifestyle far beyond a GS salary: a $540,000 home in Arlington, a Jaguar XJ-6, and, reportedly, a Cartier and six Rolex watches seized during his arrest. Unfortunately, we don’t know which specific references Ames bought, but we have a feeling gold was involved.

Aldrich Ames was arrested in 1994 and sentenced to life in prison.

Ames’s expensive habits aided in the investigation and, in part, led to his arrest. At least one of the watches was auctioned off in 1994, and included a “government certificate of authenticity vouching that their goods came from the spy’s den.” Ames pled guilty in April 1994 to espionage and tax evasion and was sentenced to life in prison without parole, where he remained until his death earlier this month. His case is widely regarded as one of the worst intelligence failures in CIA history due to the number of compromised assets and the depth of operational damage caused. 

IWC’s Charles Dubos Becomes IWC’s North American President

Charles Dubos headed to the US is great news for the unit watch crowd.

In less criminal news, IWC’s Charles Dubos, previously the Swiss watchmaker’s director for Netherland and the Nordics, has moved to the United States to take on the role of North American Brand President. This move accompanied sweeping change in Richmont’s US leadership, with Panerai and Piaget also getting new North American leadership. Dubos may not be a household name just yet, but he’s a close friend of the W.O.E. Community and the behind-the-scenes impetus for many of the brand’s modern unit watch projects. 

Dubos also hosted us at the IWC facility in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, and he is a big supporter of our community. For military and intel organizations hoping to work with IWC in the United States, getting a guy like Dubos stateside is great news. 

FBI Searches Reporter’s Home, Seizes Smartwatch

Among Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s seized assets was a Garmin smartwatch. (Photo Credit: Reason Magazine)

As part of an investigation into a leak by a Pentagon employee accused of compromising classified information, the FBI searched the home of a Washington Post reporter. According to AG Pam Bondi, the reporter, Hannah Natanson, was “obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor” and therefore placing “America’s national security and the safety of our military heroes in serious jeopardy”. As you might expect, coverage of the incident has fallen along bipartisan lines and is not really why we’re here.

Among Natanson’s seized assets were a phone, two laptops, and, notably, a Garmin smartwatch. We have spoken at length about the counterintelligence risks of connected tech, and this is an example of how the data collected by smartwatches, including locational data, could be used to aid in an investigation. We have said it many times before, but we are of the belief that anyone who values informational security, whether they’re an intelligence officer or a reporter, is better off with an analog (or basic digital) watch that can’t be compromised. Until and/or if she gets her Garmin back, we’d recommend Natanson start with one of these. 

A Heapin’ Helpin’ of Watch Crime 

Around here, we are dedicated students of watch-related crime and have commented at great length about how to travel safely with luxury watches, how to safeguard your collection at home, and the pros and cons of hotel safes. With that being said, covering watch-related criminal activities has become one of our favorite parts of the SITREP that we hope also provides valuable insights for how to avoid becoming a victim yourself. 

Luxury Watch Theft at 35,000 Feet

Even in business class, it pays to keep a close eye on your belongings.

A twenty-six-year-old Chinese national named Liu Ming has been sentenced to 20 months in prison in Singapore after pleading guilty to a theft that occurred in the business class cabin of a commercial flight. According to court documents, Liu Ming boarded a Singapore Airlines flight from Dubai to Singapore on 08 August 2025 with the intent to steal luxury goods from other business class passengers. After the meal service, when the lights were dimmed, Ming targeted luggage belonging to an Azerbaijani man peacefully sleeping nearby, removing the man’s luggage from an overhead compartment before attempting to bring it back to his seat. 

No joy, however, as the victim’s wife quickly confronted the man and alerted the cabin crew. Smart as a whip, the would-be thief told the crew he mistook the bag for his own, but further investigation revealed that Ming’s bag was a different color and brand. Upon landing in Singapore, Ming was taken into custody and charged with one count of theft. The bag in question contained cash as well as a Huawei laptop worth about $1,600, 56 cigars worth more than $4,100, a Chopard watch worth more than $27,500, and an Audemars Piguet watch worth more than $40,000, according to The Independent.

I finally worked Nicholas Cage into a SITREP.

Unlike W.O.E., I am not as passionate a student of the underworld, but even I know that the best criminal acts at least have the possibility of a clean getaway not requiring the use of a parachute. All of the sudden, I find myself compelled to watch Nicholas Cage’s 1997 masterpiece, Con Air. Go figure. 

Singaporean Watch Dealer Employee Scammed Customers Out of $500k

Soh Jian Kun has been charged with swindling fourteen people out of almost $500k. (Photo Credit: The Straits Times)

In even more unsettling news from Singapore, a watch boutique employee has pleaded guilty to a Ponzi scheme wherein he cheated fourteen former customers and friends with the illusion that he offered “inside access” to coveted Rolex and Patek Philippe models. According to our friends at Time & Tide and The Straits Times, Soh Jian Kun, formerly of Cortina Watch, swindled customers out of almost $500k. 

The brazen scam is particularly noteworthy for having happened in Singapore, which is a famously safe, low-crime city-state with famously harsh penalties for stepping out of line, if the above-mentioned 20-year sentence for a foiled mid-air robbery attempt wasn’t any indication.

If you can be a victim in Singapore, where you can’t so much as buy chewing gum, you can be a victim anywhere.

For would-be watch buyers navigating the tumultuous Rolex or Patek “wait list” situations, a racket like this is a harsh reminder that if something feels too good to be true, it probably is. Always “buy the seller” before buying the watch, as the kids on Reddit like to say. 

Suspects Smash Windows & Wield Machetes in Wild London Rolex Boutique Robbery

The floor-to-ceiling glass storefront of a London Rolex retailer was allegedly smashed with a stolen motorcycle. (Photo Credit: Reddit)

If you like your watch crime to be dramatic, London is a great place to look, with yet another English Rolex-related robbery coming to light on 21 January. According to the BBC, six perpetrators armed with “weapons including machetes” robbed a central London Bucherer location, targeting Rolex watches in particular. It gets more ridiculous. Reminiscent of the Pink Panthers, the suspects allegedly utilized a stolen motorcycle to crash through the boutique's glass front windows before smashing showcases and grabbing as many watches as their greedy fingers could hold. To make good their escape, the perpetrators mounted mopeds that were pre-staged outside, demonstrating an impressive level of forethought. 

We often comment on personal security as it relates to watches, i.e., someone walking up to you in Mayfair and taking the Hublot off of your wrist, but these smash-and-grab retail robberies are becoming more commonplace. For brands like Rolex (which owns Bucherer), Patek Philippe, and Audemars Piguet, which rely on the direct consumer relationship offered by a brick-and-mortar store, security needs to be front and center. Of course, given the widespread lack of steel Rolex sports models, I can’t help but wonder whether the thieves in question escaped with a big bag of 28mm two-tone Datejust models… 

Final Thoughts 

As the SITREP so often illustrates, watches are different things to different people. Whether it’s the possibility of an aspirational purchase used to lure a potential customer into a scam, a luxury totem bought with misbegotten KGB funds, a counterintelligence vulnerability, or the target of a brazen smash-and-grab heist, watches are tools, status symbols, and liabilities. 

If there’s a unifying lesson here, it’s that timepieces have a way of surfacing at the exact moment things go sideways, whether you’re a spy, a reporter, a crook, or just a guy in business class trying to get some much-needed shuteye. Dry January is over, the world of W.O.E. is as intriguing as ever, and you can bet your bottom dollar we’ll be back to document whatever happens over the next four weeks in the next edition of the SITREP. Lowry out. 

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