A gold 18 carat pocket watch once owned by first class passenger Isidor Straus, lost when the RMS Titanic sank in 1912, has sold at auction for a record-breaking £1.78 million / $2.3 million, setting a new benchmark for Titanic memorabilia.
The watch, an elegant timepiece by Jules Jürgensen and a birthday gift from his wife, Ida Straus, was recovered from Straus’s body after the disaster. He and Ida famously refused lifeboat seats to stay together, a story immortalised in the 1997 film Titanic.
The auction, held by Henry Aldridge & Son in Wiltshire, also included handwritten letters, passenger lists and medals, but nothing approached the haul from the Straus watch. Collectors and historians see value not just in the gold, but in the blunt symbol of human tragedy and enduring love.
As the hammer fell, it confirmed what many already suspected, when history meets heartbreak and wealth, nostalgia becomes a commodity.
