The $4.5million watch was a 40th birthday gift to the late Beatle in 1980

A rare watch bought for John Lennon by Yoko Ono just months before his death is to be returned to her.

The Patek Philippe watch, which is estimated to be worth $4.5million (£3.6million), was a 40th birthday gift to the former Beatle in 1980. It 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 the couple composed together the same year, court documents showed, according to Reuters.

It is said to have changed hands and countries several times after it was taken by Ono’s Turkish chauffeur in 2006, the court heard. He claimed he had her consent to take the watch.

Once in Turkey, the watch, which Ono bought just two months before Lennon’s assassination, changed hands again in 2010 before being sold to a German auction house who sold it to an Italian national living in China.

The court heard she only discovered that it had been stolen in 2014 after a Geneva-based company, commissioned by the Italian to assess its value, tipped off her lawyer.

Yesterday (November 14) a Swiss court ruled that the watch did not belong to the Italian, paving the way for its return to Ono. It is currently being held for safekeeping in Geneva by the lawyer of the appellant.

Elsewhere, it was recently reportedly claimed that Ono was warned that her late husband was “in danger” prior to his death.

Lennon was murdered by obsessed fan Mark David Chapman on December 8, 1980 – when he was shot while arriving at his apartment at The Dakota in New York City.

In a new book titled We All Shine On: John, Yoko and Me written by Elliot Mintz – the former spokesperson and confidant of Lennon and Ono – Mintz opened up about the aftermath of the musician’s death and how it affected his wife and his two sons, Sean and Julian.

Last month, to celebrate what would have been Lennon’s 84th birthday, a box set was shared containing “meditation mixes” of his 1973 song ‘Mind Games’.