The Legal Battle Over John Lennon’s Legendary Patek Philippe Is Finally Over

There are relatively few true grail watches in the world like Paul Newman’s “Paul Newman,” which hammered for a then record-setting $17.8 million at auction in 2017. No vintage watch has come close to beating that figure since but if there’s one that potentially could it’s the John Lennon’s Patek Philippe reference 2499 that Yoko Ono gave him on his 40th birthday. Following a years-long odyssey spanning continents and involving enough shadiness, double-crossing, and legal woes to fill a novel co-written by Johns Grisham and Le Carré, a Swiss court decided the fate of the engraved yellow gold perpetual calendar chronograph.

The story of this watch is long and winding. Ono purchased the double-signed, fourth-series ref. 2499, one of just 349 perpetual calendar chronographs made by the maison between 1952 and 1985, at Tiffany & Co. in NYC. She gave it to Lennon on the occasion of his 40th in 1980. After Lennon was tragically murdered in December of that year, Ono kept the watch locked away at their home in the Dakota building until 2005. Ono’s chauffeur, Koral Karsan, then allegedly stole the watch and brought it back to his native Turkey, where he was deported following a dispute with Ono. Karsan then used the 2499 as collateral for a home loan, and the watch passed to his friend, “Erhan G”—as he’s referred to in legal documents involving this watch—who took it back to Berlin and showed it to Oliver Hoffmann, director of watches at digital auction house Auctionata.

With me so far? Good, ‘cause there’s more: Auctionata’s CEO, Alexander Zacke, then reportedly tried to sell the watch without attracting the attention of Ono. Karsan even signed an affidavit stating that the 2499 had been gifted to him by Ono! At this point, “Erhan G,” spooked by the prospect of a lawsuit from Ono, doubled back, and Hoffmann courted a private buyer called “Mr. A.” This man consigned a collection of watches valued at 600,000 EUR in order to pay for the 2499. After only a few months, he made the critical error of taking the watch to Christie’s. The house then contacted Ono’s lawyer, which set in motion a spiral of legal proceedings to return it to her. In fact, Ono only realized the watch was missing after Christie’s contacted it to verify its authenticity.

Last week, there was another breakthrough in the case. Switzerland’s highest court ruled that the watch is definitively Ono’s, and that it must be returned to her immediately, Bloomberg reported. “There was no evidence to show that Yoko Ono intended to donate to the driver something as special as the watch, engraved with an inscription, that she had given to John Lennon two months before his death,” the court said in its decision late last week.

Of course, watch guys being watch guys, the thought on many horological brains is: “Would Ono ever sell it?” Even as a thought exercise, it’s a fascinating question—some experts think it could potentially be the most expensive watch in the world, hammering for tens of millions. This isn’t just a provenance play, either: a 2499 without ties to Lennon is still an incredibly valuable timepiece. This is a complicated reference that combines a perpetual calendar with a chronograph. A successor to the legendary ref. 1518 from 1941, it was for decades the type of timepiece that only Patek Philippe could make in series. A non-Beatle-owned, yellow-gold ref. 2499 retailed by Tiffany hammered for roughly $800,000 in 2020. Imagine, if you will, the Lennon premium.

Of course, following not only the horrific nature of Lennon’s death, the protracted legal battle surrounding the watch, and the clear joy that the gift brought the Beatle during the final months of his life, the hope would be that the 2499 remains securely with the Ono/Lennon family. Now that would be a happy ending.