A gold pocket watch recovered from the body of Isidor Straus — one of the richest passengers aboard the RMS Titanic — has sold for an astonishing £1.78 million, setting a new world auction record.
Straus, an American businessman, former U.S. congressman, and co-owner of Macy’s department store, perished with his wife, Ida, when the Titanic sank on April 14, 1912, claiming more than 1,500 lives. The 18-carat Jules Jurgensen watch was among the belongings found when his body was recovered days after the disaster.
According to the BBC, the watch had remained in the Straus family for generations before being offered for sale by Henry Aldridge & Son Auctioneers in Wiltshire, where it went under the hammer on Saturday.
The couple’s devotion has long stood as one of the most moving stories from the tragedy. Ida famously refused a lifeboat seat when she realized her husband would be left behind, reportedly saying she would not be separated from him. They spent their final moments together; her body was never recovered.
The auction, which generated £3 million in total sales, included several other rare Titanic artifacts. A letter Ida wrote on Titanic stationery sold for £100,000, while a ship passenger list went for £104,000. A gold medal awarded to crew members of the rescue ship RMS Carpathia fetched £86,000.
The pocket watch — which had stopped at 2:20 a.m., the exact moment the Titanic disappeared beneath the Atlantic — is believed to have been a birthday gift from Ida to Isidor in 1888. After its recovery, the watch was passed down through the family, and Straus’s great-grandson, Kenneth Hollister Straus, later restored its mechanism.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge hailed the sale as a “world record price,” noting that more than a century on, the Titanic still captivates people around the world.
“Every passenger and crew member had their own story, and these objects allow those stories to live on,” he said.
The previous auction record for a Titanic timepiece was set last year when a gold watch presented to the Carpathia’s captain sold for £1.56 million.
