Britain: Record price for Titanic’s richest passenger’s gold watch

The gold watch belonging to its richest passenger sold at auction for 1.37 million euros Titanicreports British auction house Henry Aldridge & Son.

The exorbitant amount for the acquisition of the gold watch was paid by an American collector and it is estimated that this money was almost ten times the estimated value of the watch (100,000-150,000 sterling, i.e. 116,000-175,000 euros).

It has now beaten the previous record for an item from the Titanic wreck, which was a violin that sold at auction in 2013 for £1.1m. The violin case was sold yesterday Saturday for £360,000 (€420,000) at the Henry Aldridge & Son auction.

Engraved with the initials JJA, the gold pocket watch belonged to the American businessman John Jacob Astor, who died at the age of 47 in the wreck of the Titanic, in the early hours of April 15, 1912. He was one of the richest men in the world at the time, with a fortune of $87 million, which today would be several billion.

Moments after helping his wife Madeleine into a lifeboat, John Jacob Astor was seen smoking a cigarette with American author Jack Futrell, according to accounts from surviving passengers.

His lifeless body was found on April 22, 1912. His 14 carat gold pocket watch was found on him.

“The watch was fully restored after it returned to the family” of John Jacob Astor “and was worn by his son,” the auction house said in the presentation. He emphasized that this is “a unique piece of Titanic history and one of the greatest pieces in watchmaking history associated with the most famous ship in the world.”