John Lennon’s stolen watch found in Geneva

The Patek Philippe 2499 given by Yoko Ono to John Lennon is said to be worth several million dollars. Keystone

The mystery is solved: one of the most sought-after stolen watches in the world has turned up in Geneva. The luxury timepiece by Patek Philippe had been a present from Yoko Ono to John Lennon just two months before his murder. 

It all began in 1980, when Yoko Ono gave John Lennon a gift for his fortieth birthday. It was a Patek Philippe watch with a perpetual calendar and moon phases, made of 18-carat gold, model 2499. On the back, she had engraved a quote from a song the couple had written together after a period of separation. 

This model of watch is rare. It was produced between 1950 and 1985, no more than nine of them being made per year. Since then, Patek Philippe 2499 has become a collector’s item. At the time of its purchase, this watch was worth about $75,000 (CHF68,400), whereas in 2018 a similar watch was sold at Sotheby’s for $3.9 million.  

“Whatever happened to the last birthday present John Lennon got? It’s a mystery,” wrote the French magazine Le Point in 2014. “If the mythic Patek Philippe of a legendary artist were to re-appear some day, given the rarity and complexity of the model and its origin, its value would be simply inestimable.” 

The chauffeur did it 

A court decision dated June 7, 2023 by the Geneva civil court reveals what actually happened to this mythic watch. After Lennon’s death, the judgement explains, the watch passed to Ono. The latter kept it in a locked room in her apartment in the Dakota Building in New York, along with other items of value that had belonged to the murdered star. 

Enter Koral Karsan. He was a Turk who had been the Japanese sculptor’s private chauffeur for ten years. He was one of the few people to have access to all the rooms in her home. But in 2006, he broke that relationship of trust – he tried to blackmail her. Convicted by an American court, he was deported to Turkey. 

Koral Karsan is now believed to have taken with him several items that had belonged to Lennon without the widow’s knowledge: diaries, tapes of concerts, spectacles – and the watch. In 2010, these items were handed over to another Turkish national, known as Erhan G. He later sold them to the German auctioneers’ firm Auctionata AG. 

For a long time, Ono suspected nothing. But in 2017, Auctionata went bankrupt. A lawyer making an inventory of their stock found the items that had belonged to Lennon, and informed the police. The widow stated that she had not given these items to Karsan, although he had declared she had. There was now a criminal investigation. This concluded with a German court in 2019 sentencing Erhan G. to a year in prison, suspended, for receiving stolen goods. 

He was shown to have transferred 86 items belonging to Lennon to Auctionata, while being aware that these had likely been stolen. As for the ex-chauffeur, he is still in his native Turkey, which refuses to extradite him. 

Purchased in good faith? 

That was not the end of the matter, for a number of items were still unaccounted for, including the missing watch. It was in fact sold by Auctionata for CHF600,000 to a person known as A., a “collector of watches and long-time professional in the industry, who describes himself as a ‘world authority on timepieces’, an Italian national, resident in Hong Kong”. 

At the time of the sale in November 2013, Patek Philippe provided a statement to Auctionata that the watch was indeed Lennon’s. Yet the company did not tell Ono that it had been called upon to authenticate this item. 

It was only in June 2014, when A. sent the watch to a company in Geneva to have it valued, that this company contacted Ono. The widow asked that it be held pending restitution to her. 

There now followed a legal battle between Ono and the collector. In A.’s view, the watch was not stolen, “and even if it had been, New York law required [Yoko Ono] to take action within a period of three years.” She had “never declared this watch stolen and took no steps to recover it”. 

The court in Geneva rejected his arguments, pointing to the conviction of Erhan G. in Germany. “Since the watch was not given to Koral Karsan, he acquired it illegally, so that his possession of it was illegal from the outset,” the court found, and concluded that Ono is the item’s rightful owner. 

“Accordingly there is no need at all to resolve the issue whether A. was acting in good faith when he acquired this watch. His own expert status as represented on his internet site, according to which he is a ‘world expert on collectable watches’, casts doubt on this, since he acquired a watch which he claimed in the course of this case to be worth between CHF200,000 and CHF400,000 for the sum of CHF600,000, whereas specialised auction houses estimate the value at CHF4,000,000.” 

Held in safe keeping 

Ono was represented by Michèle Wassmer and Vincent Guignet, who are part of the law firm Borel & Barbey. Contacted by Gotham City, they were unwilling to comment on the case, which is actually still before the courts. The Italian collector has appealed to the Swiss Federal Court. 

As for the whereabouts of the famous watch, the decision by the Geneva court says that it is still in Geneva, “being held for safe keeping” by B., the lawyer representing A. It will stay there “until there is agreement or further order on the matter”. 

Gotham City was unable to find out who this lawyer is. Geneva courts services explained that his name had been redacted from the decision “for reasons to do with his position in the case”. 

Translated from French by Terence MacNamee