The mania of Beatles memorabilia refuses to die down. John Lennon’s Patek watch, which has resurfaced after years, could be one of the world’s most valuable timepieces. But it is not a fan vying for the timepiece but Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono, who gifted the star this watch before his assassination in 1980. The watch has been missing ever since and has been discovered in Geneva after years in possession of lawyers for an Italian watch collector. The man bought Lennon’s missing Patek watch from a now-defunct German auction house, according to official legal documents from a Geneva court.
The Patek Philippe 2499 perpetual calendar chronograph was mired in a years-long legal dispute between Yoko Ono and the watch collector. The former is appealing to a Geneva court that ruled Ono, the rightful owner of the watch. Lennon’s widow learned of the watch’s existence in 2014, nearly 25 years later, when a Geneva-based company contacted her to understand the valuation of the timepiece. This phone call set the alarms ringing and also flagged off the legal battle between Ono, who sued to reclaim the ownership of the Patek.
The collector, on the other hand, per Fortune, defended his stance by stating that Ono hadn’t reported the watch stolen and failed to act within three years of the theft, as required by the law in New York. Who will finally take home the nearly $4.5 million holy grail of the horological world? A Beatles’ signature-clad plastic wall from the 1964 ‘Ed Sullivan Show’ also hit the auction block for a whopping $1 million, proving that no matter how many decades pass, the craze of The Beatles is far from over.
