This Thursday, November 14, a Swiss court determined that the Patek Philippe 2499 yellow gold wristwatch that Yoko Ono bought for her husband John Lennon when he turned 40, it does not belong to the person who later bought it at auction. The news was released by the news agency, Reuters.
According to the documents obtained, the artist paid USD 25,000 for the gift in 1980, months before Lennon’s murder. Although that amount would be equivalent to about USD 95,500 today, it now has an estimated value of 4 million Swiss francs (USD 4.51 million).
Furthermore, Yoko Ono had a phrase recorded in the piece: “(JUST LIKE) STARTING OVER LOVE YOKO 10·9·1980 N.Y.C .” “(JUST HOW TO) START AGAIN LOVE YOKO 10·9·1980 NYC”, in Spanish)
On the other hand, it was announced that the Federal Court that shared the news of the ruling included two previous rulings from Geneva courts in 2022 and 2023. According to Reutersattempts to contact the Italian who previously purchased the watch from the former member of The Beatles They were in vain because their identity was redacted in the documents. The only thing known about him is that he resides in China.
“The watch is currently in custody in Geneva by the appellant’s lawyer, Swiss court documents show, and it was not immediately clear when or if it would be returned,” Reuters reported.
It should be noted that the Patek Philippe 2499 watch, which Yoko Ono she gave to her husband, it was not the only present she gave him on his birthday. The Japanese woman also invested in a luxurious lapel pin, with the American flag, made of diamonds and rubies. This object is a tribute to the immigration battle that the English icon won with so much effort. Although the exact price of the pin is unknown, it is rumored that it cost more than USD 75 thousand (USD 287 thousand in 2024).
But that was not all, to show her affection, the now 92-year-old artist hired some planes so that on the morning of her 40th birthday, John Lennon would see a message written in the air nine times (her lucky number). That message read “Happy birthday, John and Sean. Love, Yoko.”
Let us remember that Yoko Ono and John Lennon had a son, Sean Tara Ono. In addition, the “All You Need Is Love” singer also had another son: Julian Charles John, who was born during his marriage to Cynthia Lennon. Ono also has a daughter, Kyoko Chan Cox, who she had with her ex-husband Anthony Cox.
In the same documents that credit Lennon’s widow as the legitimate owner of the watch, it was found that in the same year of the composer’s murder, both were working on their new album. The first song on the album would be called “(Just Like) Starting Over” and the couple wrote the lyrics together.
The death of John Lennon marked the world of music, because on December 8, 1980, he was killed by a gunshot wound, before managing to enter his residence in the Dakota arch in New York. The murderer was identified as Mark David Chapman, a Beatles fan who was 25 years old at the time of the incident.
This man claimed that he committed this act because he had been inspired by the fictional character Holden Caulfield from JD Salinger’s novel ‘The Catcher in the Rye’.
