On March 5, 2026, the first trial of Takazumi Fukuhara, the former representative of the company operating the watch-sharing service "Tokematch," who was charged with embezzlement related to the service, was held at the Tokyo District Court. What exactly was Tokematch? Watch journalist Yasuhito Shibuya reflects on this series of events and writes about the lessons that can be learned from it in this article.
Text by Yasuhito Shibuya
[Article published on January 17, 2026]
What is the "Tokematch Incident"?
Fraud always comes with sweet words like, "I have a great opportunity to make easy money, a guaranteed profit." It's often about dubious real estate investments or financial products. But who would have thought that a watch could become the target of such a scam?
Two years ago, in January 2024, a watch-related scam was uncovered. This was the "Tokematch incident," in which a company posing as a "luxury watch sharing service" defrauded owners of their luxury watches and then sold them on auction sites and other second-hand watch markets.
Former CEO Takazumi Fukuhara announced the termination of the service and the dissolution of its operating company, "NeoReverse," shortly after the fraud was discovered. He fled to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that same day. He was subsequently placed on an international wanted list and was apprehended in December 2025, approximately two years later, and forcibly deported to Japan. He was arrested at Narita Airport along with a former employee who was an accomplice on fraud charges, and was re-arrested on February 9 of the same year on charges of embezzlement. The estimated amount of damage is approximately 28 billion yen. Approximately 1700 watches were stolen. It has been reported that approximately 650 users have come forward as victims.
Although I have dedicated my career to editing and writing, I studied criminal policy in the Faculty of Law during my university years and briefly considered a career in law. As a result, I have quite a few classmates and juniors who are prosecutors and lawyers. I have also maintained contact with my former university professor since graduation. Therefore, I have a little more knowledge about crime and criminal justice than the average person. I became interested in this case immediately after it came to light and covered it twice in my serialized column on webChronos. Furthermore, when the suspect was arrested last December, I also commented on it in the newspaper as a watch journalist who has been watching the watch market for many years.
I would like to take this opportunity to revisit the "Tokematch Incident" in order to help you gain the knowledge to avoid falling for this type of scam in the future, and to encourage you to think about the value of watches and how to enjoy them.
Everyone was completely fooled by the "disguise" of sharing.
First, what kind of crime was the "Tokematch Incident"? Let's examine the facts of the crime.
"Tokematch," which started this "business" in 2021 based in the Kansai region, claimed, "If you entrust your luxury watch to us, we will rent it out to our clients. We will then pay you a portion of the rental fees paid by the clients. You can make money without doing anything, just by entrusting your watch to us," and used comedians as spokespeople to collect luxury watches from owners. It was presented as a "deposit" business where people could entrust the management of their assets to others and make a profit.
At the time, this business became quite a topic of conversation among watch enthusiasts. The business model itself wasn't invented by "Tokematch"; there were legitimate companies that had already established similar models. However, what attracted attention was that it was "limited to luxury watches" and that "owners were paid a high amount." Behind this was the widespread information, primarily on the internet, that "luxury watches are assets" and "if you buy them, you can ultimately profit from reselling them." As a result, many people who weren't particularly interested in watches bought luxury watches as "assets." It's understandable that they thought, "I'm planning to resell them when the time is right, but I don't know when that is. If I can make money just by lending them out, that would be great, very helpful." Furthermore, the used watch market had skyrocketed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, there was a prevailing atmosphere at the time that "it looks like a lucrative opportunity."
Furthermore, a little before that, subscription services for clothing and bags had been gaining attention and being featured in the media, such as on television. So when this "watch deposit business" appeared, it became quite a topic of conversation among my peers. I remember saying things like, "Finally, even watches are included," along with surprise, "Watches inevitably get scratched when you use them. It's unthinkable to let someone else use your precious watch. If you're attached to your own watch, you would never lend it out."
At the time, editors of internet media outlets to which I contributed articles would ask me, "What do you think of Tokematch?" So I checked out their official website. And I told them, "No matter how you look at it, it seems like a scam." I still remember the disappointed look on the editors' faces when they said, "Is that so?"
As I've written in this series before, there's a clear reason why I thought "Tokematch" seemed like a scam from the start. The fees for depositing items are simply too high. According to one calculation, it amounts to an annual interest rate of 15%, and what's more, fees are paid even when the item isn't being rented out. The big question was, who would want to borrow a luxury watch from someone else and pay such a high amount every month just to wear it? If you're going to pay that much in rental fees, it's definitely better to use a watch specialty store's interest-free 60-month (5-year) loan service and buy the watch, even if the monthly payments are higher than the rental fee.
Furthermore, watches inevitably get scratched when lent out. If they're dropped, they'll be covered in scratches, and even small scratches have their limits when it comes to polishing them up. Plus, the cost is high. In other words, it's impossible to restore them to their original condition once they're lent out. Moreover, you don't know how an unspecified number of people will use them. I also had doubts about the terms of the contract in this regard. For these reasons, I thought from the beginning, "This company will never make any money, it won't last, it will definitely go bankrupt," and refused to write the article.
The two arrests of the perpetrators and the subsequent media coverage revealed a classic method known as a "Ponzi scheme," a common tactic in financial fraud. Simply put, this scheme involves soliciting investments by promising high dividends, distributing a portion of the collected funds under the guise of dividends to gain trust, and then closing the company through planned bankruptcy to abscond with the money. It's a classic example of investment fraud that is "inevitably doomed to collapse in the near future." Instead of money, they collected physical assets—watches—and sold them off on the secondhand market without permission. They didn't even consider restoring the borrowed watches to their original condition. It was an astonishingly sloppy and childish crime that anyone with even a little knowledge of fraud would never fall for.
In addition to being arrested on December 26, 2025, on suspicion of fraud, the former representative was also indicted for embezzlement. At his first trial at the Tokyo District Court on March 5, 2026, the former representative largely admitted to the charges, stating that "there were hardly any people borrowing the watches." When the company inevitably ran into financial difficulties, he sold the watches entrusted to him on the secondhand market along with an employee who was also arrested. It is unclear at this point whether "fraud" was the objective from the beginning of the company's establishment and the launch of the service, but from a certain point onward, he repeatedly committed these two crimes.
So why did hundreds of people fall for this "deposit fraud"? A major factor is that it was disguised as a trendy "sharing service." This term was nominated as one of China's "Top Ten Popular Words" in 2017. The perpetrators exploited this trend. And the media was also deceived by this term. I won't name names, but some internet and television outlets also covered it as a topic without seeing through it. I think they need to issue a "correction" and "apology" report.
Only a small fraction of watches truly transform into something special. Furthermore, the value of most watches is ambiguous.
I've been covering the watch business for over 30 years, and frankly, if you're an average person, you should assume that there are no watches that "transform" into something truly valuable, or that "make you a fortune," whether new or used. Popular watches in the used market are either models where "production is always less than demand" or models that are popular and have a decent production volume, but demand chronically exceeds production, resulting in shortages. Their value is very ambiguous, which is why used prices fluctuate wildly.
And these kinds of watches are the bread and butter for many secondhand watch dealers. They are popular, readily available, and their prices fluctuate greatly. That's why the profit margins are large. This is true not only for watches but for everything, but professional antique dealers are always watching market trends and trading flexibly. They are not the kind of opponents that an amateur in the watch world can "outsmart."
Buying a watch purely out of greed will almost always be a waste of money. Instead, it's better to buy a watch you truly love without overextending yourself. Then, cherish it and use it carefully. Store it properly. That's definitely the better approach. You won't regret it. And it's enjoyable. In today's internet auctions and private sales, unexpected items can sometimes fetch high prices. It's probably a good idea to consider that possibility, but only to a certain extent.
Defendant Fukuhara of "Tokematch" had been cashing in watches since the service launched in January 2021, using the proceeds to pay deposit fees to owners and to purchase crypto assets. In other words, the rewards were just "show money," and he intended to commit fraud from the very beginning.
A watch is not something you can lend to others.
There are several lessons to be learned from the "Tokematch Incident." It's a rather commonplace, obvious, and uninteresting conclusion, but just like with financial fraud, "there are no easy ways to make money. So you should never believe in or get involved with such schemes."
And one more thing: "Personal watches are like private cars; they're not something you can 'rent out'." Maintaining the condition of a rented watch requires the same level of skill and personnel as a repair shop. Therefore, watch rental and subscription services, like cars, should only be offered and should only be offered by specialists who own the watches themselves. And they should be insured like rental cars.
Unfortunately, many of the stolen watches have ended up in overseas markets. Therefore, it's impossible to recover the watches, and recovering the losses is also virtually impossible. Incidentally, although it seems to have received no attention in Japan for some reason, among watch enthusiasts in Europe and America, there are platforms like "ENQUIRUS," created by the Richemont Group, that allow you to track and find lost or stolen watches (or jewelry) if they have been registered in advance, provided they have ended up on the legitimate market. I have introduced this service twice in this column. This system is also used as a "guarantee of identity" for pre-owned watches. I highly recommend registering if you are interested.
Author Profile
Shibuya Yasuhito
As an editor of a product information magazine, he began covering Geneva and Basel in 1995. He has been busy as both an editor and writer, and before he knew it, 2019 was his 25th year. He is currently planning, covering, editing, and writing about not only smartwatches, but also all kinds of things and events other than watches.
