A rare watch given to John Lennon by his wife Yoko Ono that was stolen after the legendary Beatle’s death does not belong to an Italian who bought it from an auction house years later, a Swiss court ruled today, paving the way for its return of the clock in Ono.

The Patek Philippe watch, with an estimated value of 4 million Swiss francs ($4.51 million), was a gift to Lennon for his 40th birthday from Japanese artist Ono in 1980, just two months before the Beatles founding member was murdered in New York.

The watch bears the dedication “(JUST LIKE) STARTING OVER LOVE YOKO 10·9·1980 NYC” on the back of the 18-karat gold watch face, a dedication taken from a song lyric they wrote together, a court filing said.

The appeal decision shared with reporters by the Federal Court today upholds two previous rulings by Geneva courts in 2022 and 2023. The decision ends a years-long legal battle between Ono and an Italian man living in China, who claimed that the watch belongs to him and he was the one who had filed the appeal in the present case.

Like all the names of the parties involved, the Italian’s name appears in coded form in the Swiss legal documents.

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

Once found in Turkey, the watch changed hands again in 2010 before being sold to a German auction house, which sold it to the Italian.

Ono only discovered the watch had been stolen in 2014, when a Geneva-based company approached by the Italian to assess its value informed Lennon’s wife’s lawyer.

The watch is currently being held in Geneva by the Italian’s lawyer, according to Swiss court documents, and it was not immediately clear when or if it would be returned.