A gold pocket watch recovered from the body of Isidor Straus, one of the wealthiest passengers on the Titanic, is expected to sell for up to £1 million ($1.3m) at auction.
The 18-carat gold Jules Jurgensen timepiece is frozen at 2:20 a.m., believed to be the exact moment the liner disappeared beneath the Atlantic Ocean after striking an iceberg on April 15, 1912.
Straus, a prominent American businessman and co-owner of Macy’s department store, was traveling with his wife, Ida. The couple is remembered for their final act of devotion; Ida refused a seat on a lifeboat, choosing to remain with her husband. Their story was famously depicted in James Cameron’s 1997 film “Titanic.”
More than 1,500 people died in the disaster. While Straus’s body was recovered from the ocean days later, his wife was never found. The watch was among his possessions returned to his family and has been passed down through generations.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge of Henry Aldridge & Son described the timepiece as “a phenomenal piece of memorabilia” that retells the couple’s story. Engraved with Straus’s initials, the watch is thought to have been a gift from Ida in 1888.
The watch will be auctioned on November 22 alongside a rare letter written by Ida Straus aboard the ship. In it, she described the vessel’s grandeur, writing, “What a ship! So huge and so magnificently appointed.” The letter, which was mailed from the ship’s last port of call in Ireland, is estimated to fetch £150,000.
The sale is poised to make the watch one of the most valuable Titanic artifacts ever sold. Last year, a pocket watch belonging to the captain of the Carpathia, the ship that rescued the Titanic’s survivors, sold for a record £1.56 million.
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