Swiss Court Returns Yoko Ono’s Gift to John Lennon That Was Stolen From Her

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 obviously high sentimental value, the gift—an engraved watch from Tiffany’s—was of great monetary value, too. Ono purchased the watch in 1980 for around $25,000, closer to $100,000 today.

The watch stayed in the widow’s apartment until 2007, when her ex-chauffeur, Koral Karson, stole several valuable items from her home. The theft was an added insult to injury following Karson’s arrest for grand larceny against his former employer. After the Manhattan criminal court sent Karson back to his home country of Turkey, the watch was presumed to be lost forever.

But in November 2024, the watch was located and returned to its rightful owner.

Yoko Ono’s Former Employer Arrested For Grand Larceny

In early August 2007, Yoko Ono’s former chauffeur, Koral Karson, was arrested at his Long Island home for grand larceny. Karson delivered a letter to Ono on the 26th anniversary of John Lennon’s death demanding $2 million and threatening the lives of Ono, her friends, and her family. Karson claimed the charges were Ono’s attempt to prevent him from pursuing a sexual harassment case against her. 

Ono’s spokesperson, Elliot Mintz, said this was untrue. “Basically, the chauffeur attempted to shake down Yoko for $2 million and approached her last week claiming to have personal, damaging, embarrassing tape recordings of conversations he allegedly had secretly recorded of her in the vehicle, and he would make those materials public if she did not pay,” he said.

Before Karson left the United States for his native Turkey, Ono had asked him to find a safer place for several of Lennon’s personal effects to protect them from an upcoming weather event. When the U.S. court deported Karson, he took those items with him, along with Lennon’s watch.

A Swiss Court Returns Yoko Ono’s Gift To Her

Yoko Ono gifted John Lennon a Patek Philippe 2499 for his 40th birthday on October 9, 1980, almost two months to the date before Mark David Chapman shot Lennon outside of his New York City apartment. In addition to having an international rockstar owner, the watch was incredibly valuable for its then-revolutionary computing power. With only a limited number of Philippe 2499s made, its scarcity only added to its value.

In 2020, New Yorker reporter Jay Fielden looked into the whereabouts of the sought-after watch, which had been missing from Ono’s possession since the late 2000s. Back in Turkey, Karson 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 anonymous man in 2014.

The watch became the subject of a Swiss lawsuit that aimed to determine the watch’s rightful owner: Ono or the anonymous man referred to as Mr. A in the lawsuit. In November 2024, the Switzerland Supreme Court determined Ono was the rightful owner of the watch, engraved with the message: “(JUST LIKE) STARTING OVER, LOVE YOKO. 10 • 9 • 1980. N. Y. C.”

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