A taste for luxury watches led to the downfall of Chinese official Yang Dacai. The former head of Shaanxi province’s bureau of work safety faces 14 years in prison after being convicted of corruption, a charge brought about after netizens circulated images of him wearing more than 10 different luxury timepieces, including a Vacheron Constantin worth more than ￡20,000, earning him the nickname “Brother Watch”.

Ever since President Xi Jinping promised, in a January 2013 speech, to crack down on the party’s powerful “tigers” and lowly “flies” indulging in graft, luxury has, for officials at least, become a dirty word. Internet users are on the lookout for bureaucrats displaying signs of ill-gotten gains, while the Chinese Communist party’s anti-corruption bodies take swift action against anyone endangering the party’s reputation.

Chinese leaders often talk tough on corruption but this is the first time that the world’s luxury brands have had to deal with such a wide-ranging campaign. Should they be worried?