JFK Jr. Once Traded a $17.8 Million Rolex Watch for a Camera Lens

He swapped the watch — a gift from his stepfather Aristotle Onassis — for a school friend's Nikon lens

JFK Jr. was known for his good looks, charm and off-the-charts charisma — but also, as his friends remember, for losing and misplacing things — even a Rolex.

Twenty-five years after the death of JFK Jr., a new book, JFK Jr: An Intimate Oral Biography by Liz McNeil and RoseMarie Terenzio, offers a very personal look at former president John F. Kennedy’s son, who died on July 16, 1999, when a plane he was piloting crashed into the waters off of Martha’s Vineyard, killing him, his wife, Carolyn Bessette, and her sister, Lauren Bessette.

At the Collegiate School on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, friends warmly remember John as a sweet kid with a messy mop of hair who forgot his blazers on the playground and lost the tops to his Montblanc pens.

One friend, David Clarke, told the authors how John once traded his pricey Rolex — later valued at more than $17 million — for a Nikon photo lens.

As Clarke recalled, “One day he comes up and says, ‘Whoah, nice lens. You wanna trade?’ ”

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“He takes off his watch and hands it to me, and I take the lens off and I hand it to him,” Clarke continued. “It was a stainless steel Rolex Daytona wristwatch. On the back it says, ‘To John, from Ari and Alex, 10/20/68.’ Alex is Aristotle Onassis’ son. Ari gave it to John when [his mother] Jackie married Aristotle Onassis. I’d never heard of a Rolex.”

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Clarke enjoyed the watch, but a few years later John told Clarke his mom wanted him to get the watch back — and they swapped again. “My mom says I have to get it back, only because it was a gift from my stepfather,” John told Clarke.

Related: JFK Jr.’s Shocking Plane Crash Death at 38: What Really Happened When the Plane Went Down (Exclusive)

“That model was nicknamed the Paul Newman because Paul had one,” Clarke said. “Do you know how much Paul’s sold for in 2017? It was auctioned off at $17.8 million. The single most expensive watch ever sold!”

Clarke later wrote to John’s sister Caroline Kennedy, telling her the story, and asking her if she knew where the Rolex was. “She wrote back, ‘I didn’t know about it or ever see it. He probably lost it. He lost everything.' ” 

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JFK Jr: An Intimate Oral Biography is now available, wherever books are sold.

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