New from UK - Advice needed please, stolen/lost Rolex

[Price1970]

Hi, hoping someone might be able to give me some advice please? I purchased a second hand Rolex from Watchfinder in November last year. (Model 116000 d2016) After it arrived, along with my DH, we decided to exchange it for a different model that we had been also been considering alongside the 116000. They agreed to exchange and said i should send it back them via RM Special Delivery - (I wasnt comfortable doing this but they reassured me it would be totally safe as they always used this service) I listened to them and set it along with the maximum insurance (2.5k). It totally vanished, no tracking updates at all and has never arrived with the dealer.

After 3 months dealing with Royal Mail/The Post Office and getting nowhere while they investigated, last week I had to accept their compensation as they say it is officially lost and their investigations are concluded - their offer stood till 1st March. I have been suspicious throughout this ordeal as the tracking has never updated from the point of buying the postage plus both the post office and RM have confirmed that the whole bag of special deliveries mine was with, has also been lost. RM wouldnt listen to my suggestions that it might have been stolen and blamed backlogs re to Covid etc. They said their security would do an internal investigation but i would not be allowed to know the outcome - they would let me know if they recovered the watch....

A dealer Ive spoken to via facebook thinks it has definitely been stolen whilst in transit and advised me to contact the police straight away(this week) which i have now done and they are investigating. Long shot, but has anyone else on here ever experienced or heard of a similar situation ie losing a watch via special delivery. If so, did it ever turn up? There are some stories out there of SD parcels turning up 6 months late at the moment due to Covid but the tracking is what makes me think it wont. I have registered the watch with Rolex and The Watch Register, I've saved searches on EBay and Gumtree. I've rung pawn shops locally to me and in the areas that surround the mail centres it would have passed through plus all the big second hand dealers in London. Should i post the details of the watch anywhere on this forum? Is there anything else anyone can advise i do?

I think I have lost valuable time if it does turn out to be stolen due to us reacting as if it was delayed in the post but Police 101 wouldnt listen when i rang them back in December, they said if was for RM to deal with. Please be gentle with me, i feel stupid enough as it is for exchanging it in the first place and then not listening to my gut and sending it via RM! To top it off i paid for the watch with my mum's inheritance so that makes it doubly hard. Ironically, if ever the watch does find it back to me, I will never let it go again! Sorry, this is so long - thanks for reading.