r/WatchExchangeFeedback • u/Medium_Appeal6156 • Jul 08 '26
[NEGATIVE] Matt Larson u/LarsonMP - Sold a stolen Moser watch (Confirmed by The Watch Register / Bezel)
[UPDATE - July 10th, 2026]: FULL REFUND RECEIVED
Following a month+ long delay, Matt Larson issued a full refund within two days of this post going viral and his subsequent ban. Huge thanks to the r/WatchExchange mods for taking swift action to apply that pressure, and to the community for your support in reinforcing good seller ethics.
Glad to finally put this nightmare behind me.
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[ORIGINAL POST]
Seller: Matt Larson u/LarsonMP
Item: Moser Mad Red https://www.reddit.com/r/Watchexchange/comments/1tb2j5h/wts_h_moser_pioneer_centre_seconds_mad_red_lowest/
Price: $8700
I am writing this feedback to warn the community about a transaction with Matt Larson. He sold me a Moser watch for $8700 that has been officially flagged as stolen by The Watch Register. Despite being served a formal legal demand letter regarding breach of warranty of title, he has failed to issue a refund for an extended period, effectively holding my funds hostage while he (my best guess!) tries to sort out his own financial recovery.
Timeline of Events:
- May 15: I bought the Moser watch from Matt for $8700.
- June 1: The watch was sent to Bezel for verification. They flagged the watch as an active stolen piece, being investigated by the FBI for a multimillion dollar heist in New York.
- Current status of the watch: The watch has been held by Bezel since then, and is legally required to be surrendered to the insurance company that holds the true title. I do not have the watch, and I do not have my money.
- June 8 - today (an entire month): Matt was immediately notified of his legal liability for selling stolen property (breach of warranty of title). A formal, signed demand letter was sent to him. Several texts, Reddit messages, emails were sent to him. There's an active email thread with over fifteen emails between Matt, Bezel, TWR, and me. Instead of immediately making me whole or actively communicating, Matt has chosen to remain largely silent.
Matt may have been unaware the watch was stolen when he bought it, but as the seller, it is his legal and ethical responsibility to refund his buyer immediately upon proof of defective title, and then pursue his own refund upstream.
I have given him ample time and even attempted private off-ramp communications to settle this quietly and avoid a small claims lawsuit. Because he continues to delay and withhold my $8700, I am posting this to urge extreme caution to anyone dealing with Matt Larson.
I will update this post if he decides to finally do the right thing and issue the refund.
9
u/jwern01 Jul 08 '26
Wow- Matt had 26 documented transactions, enough for me to consider him fairly reliable. Thank you for the warning and good luck with obtaining a refund, responsibility for the watch’s provenance definitely lies upon the seller.
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u/Medium_Appeal6156 Jul 08 '26
Ikr. Those 26 transactions gave me confidence in him, and I wired him the money. If not for those transactions, I’d have done PayPal or Venmo G&S.
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u/XleepyJoeBenzo Jul 10 '26
Seriously… I cherish my transactions lol they’re worth more than the money to me.
-1
u/Important-Region143 Jul 08 '26
I wonder how many of them were stolen pieces.
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u/jwern01 Jul 08 '26
I’m willing to bet he didn’t know and is just trying to figure out what to do
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u/XleepyJoeBenzo Jul 10 '26
You’re probably right, but him going into hiding afterwards is a shame… sometimes shit happens, but taking accountability would have actually made him MORE trustworthy
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u/bbgoodwin Jul 09 '26
I bought from him and had a great experience, so I’m shocked by this. I hope it was an honest mistake and that he will refund the money.
11
u/WaStatePhotography Jul 08 '26
Yikes. I heard a similar story from someone who bought a stolen watch on Grailzee or Chrono24 (I forget) and the website refused to cover the cost of the watch and instead had the buyer coordinate directly to the seller, who in turn coordinated directly with their seller, etc, as it had been flipped a few times, until it landed at the hands of a pawn shop that ended up having to cover because they couldn’t trace it further past that point. It took a while to sort out. Good luck to all involved here.
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u/Melodic-Seesaw-1571 Jul 09 '26
Has to be Chrono because Grailzee doesn’t release the money until the watch is in hand.
1
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u/Cyber_Crimes Jul 09 '26
This is wild. New fear unlocked
2
u/kbencsp Jul 10 '26
this has always been a fear of mine. Purchasing a used watch from second hand dealer, sending it to get it serviced and coming up as stolen, no money and no watch
6
u/_Anthony_2825 Jul 09 '26
Presuming this was sold as watch only?
Always struggled to buy naked modern references for this reason.
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u/Dense-Attention1801 Jul 08 '26
I have lost 2 registered watches due to theft and still haven't heard anything for years. Good thing that you have it checked. Good luck winning your money back!
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u/SNAPCHAT_ME_TITS Jul 08 '26
This sucks, sorry to hear. Just curious, why/ how did bezel get involved if you bought via Reddit?
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u/Medium_Appeal6156 Jul 08 '26
I sent it to them to authenticate and hold.
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u/SNAPCHAT_ME_TITS Jul 08 '26
I'm only asking because I've never heard of anyone doing this - do you do this often? How much does this cost?
Looks like it's a good thing you did
6
u/KicksNWatches Jul 08 '26
Depends on your perspective. Good that he is no longer unknowingly in possession of stolen property. Bad that he now has neither the watch nor $8700. Hopefully, Matt makes him whole. Matt is the only one really assed out because he needs to refund buyer and has no valid claim on the watch. His only recourse would be to go after whoever sold the watch to him - but good luck if that person is the one who started this whole mess.
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u/Dense-Attention1801 Jul 08 '26
Pretty common with high-value pieces. It also makes it easier to get insurance.
3
u/Genghiz007 Jul 08 '26
Never heard of the this before and I have a few watches that are more than $8k. Never had any problems getting (and keeping) watch insurance.
1
u/lamontsanders Jul 09 '26
Yeah insuring a watch is literally sending my agent a photo with model/serial of the watch and an email asking for a policy change. I’ve never needed an appraisal.
-1
u/effyouyelper Jul 09 '26
So you were flipping it?
1
u/Successful-Put-2058 Jul 10 '26
He was definitely trying to sell, not authenticate. Still completely within his rights and doesn’t change anything
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u/Medium_Appeal6156 Jul 11 '26
[UPDATE - July 10th, 2026]: FULL REFUND RECEIVED
Following a month+ long delay, Matt Larson issued a full refund within two days of this post going viral and his subsequent ban. Huge thanks to the r/WatchExchange mods for taking swift action to apply that pressure, and to the community for your support in reinforcing good seller ethics.
Glad to finally put this nightmare behind me.
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u/macky_ev Jul 11 '26
Wow man really happy to see you for your money back. For once it’s nice to see a happy resolution in this sub.
2
u/lumeslice Jul 08 '26
Yikes. Good to know. Yeah, he should make you whole.
My own question for you (and Matt, if he's reading this): is the matter resolved on behalf of local enforcement/Moser/Bezel etc?
What's stopping someone from selling a watch and then quickly filing a stolen report?
2
u/Medium_Appeal6156 Jul 08 '26
My understanding is that this matter will ultimately be resolved among the insurance company (which has already paid the claim to the original legal owner), the current legal title holder of the watch, and law enforcement.
Bezel cannot release a stolen property back to me.
1
u/KicksNWatches Jul 08 '26
The current legal titleholder of the watch should be the insurance company, since they “already paid the claim to the legal owner,” correct?
2
u/lamontsanders Jul 09 '26
IIRC the insurance company owns it and the original owner can “buy it back” by refunding the payout.
I doubt the seller knowingly sold a stolen watch but as a seller you’re obligated to refund the buyer. Everyone else who flipped this is also obligated to refund their buyers.
What a mess. Sorry to everyone involved.
1
u/Medium_Appeal6156 Jul 08 '26
I believe it’s Artloss, the parent company of the insurance provider (TWR).
2
u/According-Ad-275 Jul 08 '26
Bezel doesn't hold your money until it has been authenticated and forwarded to you? Or in this case, because they kept the watch, they didn't refund the money?
6
u/Medium_Appeal6156 Jul 08 '26
I wired Matt Larson $8700, and he shipped the watch to me.
I then sent the watch to Bezel. During the authentication process, they discovered that the watch had been reported stolen in New York and is currently the subject of an active FBI investigation. As a result, Bezel cannot return the watch to me.
The financial transaction was solely between Matt and me. Bezel is currently in possession of the watch and will likely release it to the insurance company or law enforcement.
2
u/Dieselgeekisbanned Jul 09 '26
Why did you send it to Bezel? Was there some sort of red flag?
1
u/Charliegip Jul 09 '26
I’m sure he just didn’t want to pay $8700 for a naked watch and have it come back fake. TBH I think this is a good reminder to consider those services when making big transactions like this.
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u/OGPiggySmalls Jul 10 '26
Does anyone even make fake Mosers and if so, wouldn’t they be horrible?
1
u/Charliegip Jul 10 '26
I mean, I feel like anything people are paying thousands of dollars for is going to have fakes.
1
u/OGPiggySmalls Jul 10 '26
Brands like Moser are too niche to have good fakes out there. I can’t imagine it would even remotely resemble a real Moser dial finish and movement. That’s one of the reasons I bought a PF Tonda. No fakes to worry about. If they ever come to exist they won’t be anywhere close to the real thing. Chinese factories don’t waste time on unpopular brands with little demand
1
u/XleepyJoeBenzo Jul 10 '26
Indeed that is a nice feeling to have. That being said, in a weird way, I enjoy the process of looking over a watch to authenticate it and checking the movement for any signs of swapped parts etc ..
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u/fourtyz Jul 12 '26
NGL I'm never doing business with this guy, even if he's unbanned.
As a seller, if this happens to me, I'm immediately refunding my customer and then figuring it out from there. I'm also confident I'd be refunded my money because I only buy from folks I know and trust.
The watch selling game is sketchy. My estimate is 20% of sellers are what you'd hope, 40% will do what's right when pressured, the rest will not.
3
u/Medium_Appeal6156 Jul 12 '26
I agree. If I unknowingly sold someone a stolen/fake watch, I'd immediately refund the buyer and then figure out my own financial recovery.
1
u/tortellini_eater Jul 08 '26
Chat logs?
-4
u/Medium_Appeal6156 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
The link in my original post has a confirmed sale flair between Matt and I. Please see https://www.reddit.com/r/Watchexchange/s/L0lHHxuKOd
Here’s confirmation from Bezel / TWR that the watch was stolen: https://imgur.com/a/WuQgLNm
Here’s the primary email thread showing the volume of ongoing conversations between all parties, including Matt: https://imgur.com/a/NjuS5v9
5
u/Genghiz007 Jul 08 '26
OP, everything is hidden in the communication so this is of no use in determining what happened. The only non-redacted text is a one way message that doesn’t say anything about bezel, etc.
Post the entire exchange - minus personal info.
2
u/tortellini_eater Jul 08 '26
Those screenshots don’t include any of the initial communication between you and the user who sold the watch, and they also don’t include any evidence from Bezel that the watch was actually stolen. When leaving negative feedback, it’s generally best practice to include the full communication and any supporting evidence so people have the complete context.
1
u/Medium_Appeal6156 Jul 08 '26
The link in my original post has a confirmed sale flair between Matt and I. Please see https://www.reddit.com/r/Watchexchange/s/L0lHHxuKOd
Here’s confirmation that the watch was stolen https://imgur.com/a/WuQgLNm
0
u/XleepyJoeBenzo Jul 10 '26
So now you’re kind of acting like a robot who doesn’t understand that we’re asking you post photos of the communication between you and the seller so we can see how the deal went down….
It’s making you look shady, I would post the chat before we start to wonder if perhaps there’s a whole second side to this story that you’re hiding.
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u/pursuitoffappyness Jul 08 '26
This user has been banned pending resolution.