The ¥46 Million Royal Oak Came Back in the Mail

He asked to try it on. That's how it always starts. On Thursday night, October 29, at about 7:45, a man dressed in black walked into Kamekichi, a watch shop on the third floor of Tokyo's Nakano Broadway. Nakano Broadway is a shopping complex — sacred ground for watches. He pointed at a watch in the case and said he wanted to try it on. He handed that one back. Then he asked for the one he actually came for.

It was an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, priced in that store at about ¥46 million, or roughly $292,000. The Royal Oak is the octagon-bezel sports watch Gérald Genta designed in 1972, and it changed what a luxury watch could be. AP's exact reference hasn't been disclosed. Neither has the dial, the metal, or whether it was new or pre-owned. All that's been reported is the brand, the line, and the number.

He strapped it to his left wrist and walked to the mirror in the back. At about 7:53 he acted like he was about to sit down in a nearby chair, and then he was gone, out the front door with the watch still on. One employee was on the floor and another was in the back room. A store employee chased him. A witness told TV Asahi the man ran the wrong way down the escalators. He dropped to the basement, cut through a supermarket connected by an underground passage, came out at street level, and headed east. Cameras farther east caught a figure in dark clothes with something shining on his left wrist. Nobody was hurt. He'd been inside for about eight minutes. Staff told TV Asahi he spoke fluent Japanese.

This wasn't a store with its guard down. This was also the second watch theft at the complex since summer. In August, four luxury watches worth a combined ¥200 million were taken from a first-floor shop. Two Chilean nationals were arrested and indicted. According to TV Asahi, one of them told investigators they'd heard back home that Japan's punishments were light. Tokyo police ran crime-prevention guidance at Nakano Broadway on September 17. Barely two months later, it happened again.

Then the story turned. On Sunday morning, November 1, a courier dropped off a cardboard box at the shop. Inside was a Royal Oak. Staff checked the serial number, and it matched the stolen watch. Investigators found no significant damage. The box also held a handwritten note. Every report describes it the same way: a note to the effect of "I'm sorry." The exact wording hasn't been released.

The box was shipped from Aichi Prefecture. It listed a sender's name and address, and police believe both are fake. As of Monday, Tokyo police were still looking for the man and still treating it as a theft. No arrest has been reported. Police haven't confirmed that the person who mailed the box is the same man who ran out of the store. The shop declined to comment to AFP.

So why send back a ¥46 million watch? Tatsuyuki Narumi, a former head of the Kanagawa police's first investigative division, put it plainly on Nippon TV. A watch like this can't be turned into cash in Japan, he said. The more expensive it is, the more surely its serial number is on file, and pawnshops and buyers check against that data. Sooner or later, the trail leads back to you. He said the thief probably thinks returning it will make the crime count for less. In his words, it doesn't.

Think about it for a second. It's one of the most recognizable watches on earth, and the one thing he couldn't do with it was sell it. He couldn't really wear it out either, not after security cameras caught it shining on his wrist. So it went in a box with a note, and back to the third floor.

The watch is home. The man who ran with it still isn't.