The Beatles and Their Watches – Part VII: The Pocket Watches

In December 2020 Phillips held an auction at which it sold two pocket watches described as follows: “Former Property of John Lennon & Andy Warhol: A pair of very rare and culturally significant 14k white gold pocket watches.”  The description went on to describe them as being “Circa 1930s; Circa 1920s.  The first: 42mm; the second 44.5mm”  One appears to have been a pocket watch from E. Howard Watch Co. (the one associated with Lennon), the other was an Elgin (associated with Andy Warhol). 

The lot (i.e. both watches together) sold for $50,400.

What to make of this?  Both watches were apparently originally sold as part of their respective owners’ estate auctions.  The Howard (Lennon’s) was sold by Yoko Ono in 1984 four years after Lennon’s death.  The Elgin (Warhol’s), on the other hand, was sold at an estate sale in 1988, one year after Warhol’s death.  Lennon and Warhol had known one another in the 1970s in New York City and there are photos of them together at the Record Plant (including one which was included as part of the auction).

Lennon was supposedly “rarely”photographed wearing a watch (although in Part I of this series we looked at Lennon’s Patek Philippe and in Part II we looked at his Accurist – and showed photos of him wearing both) whereas Andy Warhol had a collection of watches that numbered probably in the 100s.  He famously wore a Cartier Tank that he never bothered to set to the correct time (he apparently also never wound it). 

What brought these two pocket watches together in a single auction was nothing other than someone who had collected them (Lennon’s had come up for auction again in 2003), put them together, and sold them off as a combined lot.  It’s not as if John and Andy sat around collecting pocket watches and discussing them at length!  This is the only instance of a watch of John Lennon’s coming up for auction.

A 14k gold pocket watch made by Lambert Bros. (Circa 1947) came up in the 2015 Julien’s auction for items belonging to Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach, but the watch was described there as belonging to Bach and not the Beatle.

Roll Over Beethoven.

Wm Shakespeare

The Beatles and Their Watches - Part I: The Pateks

The Beatles and Their Watches - Part II: The Accurists

The Beatles and Their Watches - Part III: Cartier & Breitling

The Beatles and Their Watches - Part IV: Ringo Starr

The Beatles and Their Watches - Part V: The Apple Watch

The Beatles and Their Watches – Part VI: Sir Paul’s Casio

The Beatles and Their Watches – Part VII: The Pocket Watches

The Beatles and Their Watches - Part VIII: Raymond Weil

The Beatles and Their Watches - Part IX: Joey Ramone's Apple Watch

The Beatles and Their Watches - Part X: Jimmie Nicol's Watch

The Beatles and Their Watches - Part XI: Yellow Submarine

The Beatles and Their Watches - Part XII: John Lennon's STOLEN Patek Found! (Updated)