While My Watch Gently Ticks: A Deep Dive Into John Lennon’s Personal 2499

By now, we’ve all seen that iconic image of Lennon: posing for a wrist shot with the watch partially obscured by the triple-buttoned cuff of his denim shirt, also happening to show off two other birthday presents — an American flag pin on a tie knit by Yoko Ono.

As Jay Fielden discovered, in what is sure to become one of the most important pieces of 21st century horological lore, Bob Gruen took the portrait (in addition to another photo where the 2499 is even less visible) during a recording session of Double Fantasy, Lennon’s first new album in half a decade. Just two months later, he would be assassinated in front of the very building where the Patek would spend the next two decades — tucked away securely by his widow.

Sitting in a locked room of the Dakota apartment, the 2499’s slumber would eventually be interrupted by Koral Karsan. As Yoko Ono’s trusted employee, he later claimed that she had instructed him to find a safe place for some of Lennon’s old diaries, glasses, and of course, the Patek she’d gifted to him for his 40th birthday. Instead, he was deported back to Türkiye for the theft of these items, though none were ever returned.

The watch changed hands several times under dubious circumstances. First, it passed into the hands of one Erhan G, a Turkish businessman residing in Germany, who reportedly took the watch from Karsan as collateral on a loan. He would eventually take the watch to the online German auctioneer Auctionata: only to withdraw it from planned public sale despite his possession of a statement signed by Karsan (alleging the 2499 was given to him by Ono in 2005).

As the watch could not be sold publicly without attracting attention, Auctionata’s Oliver Hoffmann contacted “Mr. A”, a known figure in those circles; and the watch was subsequently sold in 2014 for €600,000. It would later be revealed that Mr A was in fact Maurizio De Simone: an Italian dealer whose family-owned business still operates under the name Watches in Rome. Shortly after that same year, the watch’s whereabouts became known to Ono herself.

De Simone took the watch to Christie’s in Geneva, trying to procure a “provenance letter” from Ono, according to the dealer's son, with the plan to put it back up for auction. In response to the auction house’s request, in 2015 Ono filed a claim for the watch — stating she was unaware it had been stolen. 

Naturally, De Simone contested all claims, and the two parties decided that the watch would be kept by De Simone’s lawyer until an agreement is reached. Following nearly a decade of debate and a proposal of joint ownership by Ono (which De Simone rejected), the courts decided that Ono was the watch’s rightful owner and ordered its immediate return.

Now that the dust has settled on court proceedings, let’s take a closer look at the actual watch. Ono purchased it at Tiffany New York in 1980: an era that aligns with the assessment that this particular 2499 is a fourth series model, cased by Wenger, with a ‘hidden’ Tiffany & Co signature in the 6 o’clock subregister. This also means that, unlike earlier series, Lennon’s 2499 is also covered with a sapphire crystal. 

Some 100 examples of the fourth series are believed to have been produced between 1979-1985, with the rarest models differentiated by dial — whether that be the possibly unique champagne model, or rare retailer-signed versions like Lennon’s. Of the latter, only 11 individual examples have surfaced at auction since 1989: three signed by Beyer and Tiffany, and another five by Gübelin.

Counting just 349 examples, the Ref. 2499 only slightly outnumbers the preceding 1518 in terms of production numbers, albeit with a run nearly double the length of Patek’s first legendary calendar-chronograph. Just by that very metric, the aforementioned €600,000 sum seems downright modest compared to what other 2499s were going for in 2014 (e.g. another fourth series sold by Antiquorum, without any special provenance, for CHF 381,750). If this were your run-of-the-mill 2499? Fine. But considering the provable ownership by Lennon, complete with caseback engraving, De Simone got the deal of a century.

While I doubt (yet vainly hope) we’ll see it come up for auction, one thing I’m certain of is that this watch would have the potential to become the most expensive ever sold. No small feat, given how fiercely contested that title has been over the last decade.