Yoko Ono found to be rightful owner of stolen million-dollar watch she gifted to ex-Beatle John Lennon: court

A rare watch given to John Lennon by his wife Yoko Ono and which was stolen after his death does not belong to an Italian man who bought it from an auction house years later, a Swiss has court ruled, paving the way for its return to Ono.

The Patek Philippe watch, with an estimated value of four million Swiss Francs ($A7 million), was a 40th birthday gift to the former Beatle from Japanese artist Ono in 1980, just two months before his assassination in New York.

The watch bears the inscription “(JUST LIKE) STARTING OVER LOVE YOKO 10·9·1980 N.Y.C “, on the back of its 18-carat gold face, a line from a song they composed together, the court statement said.

The appeal ruling shared with reporters by the Federal Tribunal on Thursday confirms two prior judgments by Geneva courts in 2022 and 2023. It concludes a years-long legal battle between Yoko Ono and an Italian man living in China who claimed ownership of the watch and was the appellant in this case.

Like all the names of the parties involved, his name is given in code form in the Swiss legal documents, with only some of the identities possible to determine.

It was not possible for Reuters to contact his lawyer since their identity is also censored.

Court documents show the watch changed hands and countries several times after being taken by Ono’s Turkish chauffeur in 2006. He claimed he had Ono’s consent to take the watch.

Once in Turkey, the watch changed hands again in 2010 before being sold to a German auction house who sold it to the Italian national living in China.

Ono only discovered the watch had been stolen in 2014 after a Geneva-based company, commissioned by the Italian to appraise its value, tipped off her lawyer.

The watch is currently being held for safekeeping in Geneva by the lawyer of the appellant, Swiss court documents show, and it was not immediately clear when or if it would be returned.