After a decade-long legal fight, Yoko Ono reclaims John Lennon’s rare watch.
A Swiss court ruled on Thursday that the watch doesn’t belong to an Italian man who bought it at an auction. The decision allows the watch to be returned to Ono.
The Patek Philippe watch, worth about 4 million Swiss Francs ($4.51 million), was a gift from Ono to Lennon for his 40th birthday in 1980, two months before he was killed in New York. Ono bought the watch for $25,000, which is now equal to $95,500.
At the time, Lennon was working on his album ‘Double Fantasy’ and made ‘(Just Like) Starting Over’ the lead single with Ono and Jack Douglas. The court said the watch has the words “(JUST LIKE) STARTING OVER LOVE YOKO 10·9·1980 N.Y.C” engraved on its back, a line from a song by Lennon and Ono.
On Thursday, Switzerland’s Federal Tribunal upheld two earlier rulings from 2022 and 2023. This ends a 10-year legal fight between Yoko and an Italian man living in China who said the watch was his.
Ono’s lawyer, Vincent Guignet, told Reuters she was relieved by the case’s outcome, “This watch holds particular significance for her, and it is about time she got it back.”
In Swiss legal documents, all names are coded, making most identities hard to know. Court papers say Ono’s Turkish chauffeur took the watch in 2006, claiming she allowed it. The watch moved through several countries and owners.
In 2010, it went to a German auction house, which sold it to an Italian man in China. Ono learned it was stolen in 2014 when an Italian man asked a Geneva company to check its value and informed her lawyer.
The watch is with the appellant’s lawyer in Geneva for safekeeping, court papers say. It is unclear when or if it will be returned.