Two months before John Lennon’s assassination, Yoko Ono gave him a touching gift that remained locked away in their Dakota apartment for decades after his death. In addition to its obvious high sentimental value, the gift – an engraved Tiffany watch – was of significant financial value as well. Ono bought the watch in 1980 for about $25,000, which is roughly $100,000 today.
The watch remained in the widow’s apartment until 2007, when her former driver, Coral Carson, stole several valuables from her home. The theft was an added insult to the injury after Carson was arrested on grand theft charges against his former employer. After the Manhattan Criminal Court sent Carson back to his home country of Turkey, it was assumed that the clock was lost forever.
But in November 2024, the watch was located and returned to its rightful owner.
Yoko Ono’s former employer arrested for grand theft
In early August 2007, Coral Carson, Yoko Ono’s former driver, was arrested at his Long Island home on charges of grand larceny. Carson delivered a letter to Ono on the 26th anniversary of John Lennon’s death demanding two million dollars and threatening the lives of Ono and her friends and family. Carson claimed that the charges were Ono’s attempt to prevent him from pursuing the sexual harassment case against her.
Ono’s spokesperson, Elliot Mintz, said this is untrue. “Basically, the driver tried to blackmail Yoko for $2 million and approached her last week claiming he had personal, damaging and embarrassing recordings of conversations he allegedly secretly recorded of her in the car, and would release this material if she said: ‘He didn’t pay.
Before Carson left the U.S. for his native Turkey, Ono asked him to find a safer place for many of Lennon’s personal belongings to protect them from an upcoming weather event. When the U.S. court deported Carson, he took these items, as well as Lennon’s watch, with him.
Swiss court returns Yoko Ono’s gift
Yoko Ono gave John Lennon a Patek Philippe 2499 for his 40th birthday on October 9, 1980, almost two months before Mark David Chapman shot Lennon outside his New York City apartment. In addition to having a world-class owner, the watch was incredibly valuable due to its revolutionary computing power at the time. With only a limited number of Philippe 2499s, its rarity only added to its value.
In 2020. New Yorker Reporter Jay Fielden looked into the whereabouts of the watch, which had been missing from Ono’s possession since the late 2000s. In Turkey, Carson used the valuable watch as collateral for a home loan. The watch traveled through various European auctions until it landed in the hands of an unknown man in 2014.
The watch became the subject of a Swiss lawsuit aimed at determining the rightful owner of the watch: Ono or the unknown man referred to as Mr. A in the lawsuit. In November 2024, the Supreme Court of Switzerland decided that Ono is the rightful owner of the watch, engraved with the message: “(Just like) starting over, I love Yoko. 10-9-1980. New York City”
In the face of losing her husband and the father of her child, Ono’s victory is a small one – but a victory nonetheless.
Photo by Susan Wood/Getty Images
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