Thieves have been targeting the wearers of ten-thousand-dollar Rolexes and Patek Philippes, so if you own one of these high-end watches you might want to think twice before wearing them out in public spaces in SF.

Your Apple Watch is probably safe to keep wearing, but police say that San Francisco has become a hot spot for robberies of nicer watches that retail in the tens of thousands of dollars.

The San Francisco Police Department put out a release today saying that the department's Robbery Detail is "investigating a recent uptick in high-value watch robberies."

"Investigators believe these robberies are organized and coordinated by multiple suspects," the SFPD says. "Additionally, these incidents match the M.O. of similar robberies regionally and state-wide."

Over two dozen cases involving high-end watch thefts have occurred just since the start of 2022, the department says. And most of the incidents have happened at "high-traffic, popular destination spots in the city."

It doesn't sound like there have been any suspects identified so far, but the SFPD says it is "following all investigative leads that will lead to the identification and arrest of these suspects."

ABC 7 reported in December on a spate of high-end watch robberies in SF and elsewhere in the Bay Area. Those incidents included "a couple from Indonesia was robbed of a $100,000 Richard Mille timepiece in San Francisco in October," and a 59-year-old man who was pistol-whipped and robbed of a $30,000 Rolex while feeding a parking meter in downtown Oakland in December.

Photo: Andrea Natali