Titanic’s richest passenger’s gold pocket watch sold for 1.4 million euros

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A gold pocket watch recovered from the body of the Titanic’s richest passenger has sold for a record £1.2 million, or €1.4 million, to a private collector in the United States.

The auction took place on Saturday at Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes, Wiltshire, and marked the highest price ever paid for Titanic memorabilia, according to the auctioneers.

The watch, which belonged to John Jacob Astor IV, of the wealthy Astor family, reached a value ten times the expected auction price of 100,000 to 150,000 pounds (117,000 to 175,000 euros).

At the time of the sinking, the 47-year-old Astor was one of the richest people in the world and owned properties including the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. He made the voyage on the Titanic with his young wife Madeleine Astor, aged 18, and socialite Molly Brown.

When his wife and Brown were transported to the lifeboats, Astor was told he had to wait until all the women and children were safe before joining them. He walked away and smoked a cigarette as they were taken to safety.

Along with Astor’s watch, other notable items were auctioned, including the suitcase that contained the violin played by bandleader Wallace Hartley when the ship sank, and a pocket book that detailed the Titanic’s voyages.

The suitcase sold for £360,000 (€421,000) and the violin was auctioned for £1.1 million (€1.28 million) by the same auction house in 2013. Until the sale of Astor’s pocket watch, the The violin held the record for the best-selling Titanic item.

“Wallace Hartley’s violin is the most iconic piece of Titanic memorabilia ever sold at auction,” said auctioneer Andrew Aldridge. “However, it would not have survived if it had not been for this suitcase made of English stagecoach skin. The long straps would have been used by Wallace to fasten the suitcase to himself as the Titanic sank. It served to protect the instrument from the salty sea water “.

Last month, the Titanic’s famous floating door, which kept Rose (Kate Winslet) afloat but left Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) fatally cold in James Cameron’s 1997 film, sold for a whopping $718,750 ( 663,000 euros) during Heritage Auctions’ Treasures from Planet Hollywood event.