Titanic passenger’s pocket watch sold for record £1.78m at auction | The Titanic

A gold pocket watch belonging to a man who died on the Titanic when it sank has been sold for a record price.

The watch belonging to 67-year-old Isidor Straus was sold at auction for £1.78 million; this was the highest amount ever paid for Titanic memorabilia. On his 43rd birthday in 1888, he was given an 18-carat Jules Jurgensen engraved watch as a gift.

The previous record sale for the Titanic was achieved last year, when a different gold pocket watch gifted to the captain of a ship who rescued more than 700 passengers from the ship sold for £1.56 million.

Straus was born to Jewish parents in Otterberg, Bavaria, in 1845, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1854. Straus made a name for himself there and became a partner in New York department store Macy’s. Straus and his wife, Ida, were two of more than 1,500 passengers who lost their lives when the Titanic sank in 1912, and they were two of the only first-class passengers to die in the tragedy.

As the ship began to sink, the couple reportedly made their way to the lifeboats, where they were offered seats due to their age, but Straus refused to be given a seat before the other men. Ida refused to let him go, and they were last seen alive, sitting on sun loungers, facing fate alongside each other.

The couple was depicted in James Cameron’s 1997 epic film Titanic, lovingly embracing in their bed as their cabin filled with water. His watch was later recovered from the wreckage and handed over to the Straus family.

This was one of many Titanic-related items sold by auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes, Wiltshire, this weekend; Other items included a letter written by Ida Straus on Titanic stationery for £100,000, a Titanic passenger list bought for £104,000, and a gold medal awarded to the crew of the RMS Carpathia by rescued survivors, which sold for £86,000. An auction of Titanic-related memorabilia has reached a total of £3 million.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: “The world record price demonstrates the enduring interest in the Titanic story. “Every man, woman and child passenger or crew had a story to tell, and these are being told through memorabilia 113 years later.

“The Strauses were the ultimate love story, with Ida refusing to leave her husband of 41 years as the Titanic sank, and this world record price is a testament to their respect.”