There is a lot of fascinating detail behind this photo. The photo was taken by John's wife, Yoko Ono, on his 40th Birthday. Yoko knitted the tie around John's neck and gave it to him for his birthday. Yoko took the photo below, before she took the one above. Notice that in the photo below John is wearing the American Flag pin on his shirt and in the photo above he moved it onto his necktie.
The pin was a birthday gift from Yoko and it was made from rubies, sapphires and diamonds, and it cost $75,000 in 1980. It is likely the U.S. Flag pin came from Tiffany & Company, or Cartier, or Harry Winston in New York. It seems clear to me that in the photo above, John is showing-off his Patek Philippe with his flag pin, and perhaps he also received his Patek Philippe as a gift for his 40th birthday?
This in-and-of-itself is kind of bizarre, since John Lennon had been such a hippie, but it makes sense because in these images, taken less than 2 months before he died, he is starting to look clean-cut, contemporary and preppy. Of course, it was 1980 and men's style was moving quickly away from the funky vibe of the 1970s, and getting more clean-cut, and John Lennon was alway ahead of the style curve.
It also crosses my mind that photos above were taken in 1980. Trendy digital quartz watches had been around for a decade, and the movement toward beautiful mechanical watches really started to get underway in the early 1980s, which once again puts John Lennon ahead of the curve. For some reason, the images of John Lennon above remind me of an late 1970s or early 1980s Nagel Print.
John Lennon's Patek Philippe Moonphase in the photo above is similar to the 1971 Patek Philippe Chronograph pictured below, which is a 37.7mm pink gold Reference 2499. This beautiful Patek Philippe Reference 2499 sold at Christie's Hong Kong on May 30, 2011 for $1,205,330.
