Overview
- Henry Aldridge & Son sold the watch on November 22 in Devizes, Wiltshire, achieving the highest price ever paid for Titanic memorabilia.
- The engraved gold watch was recovered from Isidor Straus’s body, returned to his family, originally gifted for his 43rd birthday in 1888, and later had its movement restored by great-grandson Kenneth Hollister Straus.
- The result surpassed last year’s £1.56 million record set by a different gold pocket watch presented to the captain of a ship that rescued more than 700 Titanic survivors.
- Additional lots included a letter written by Ida Straus on Titanic stationery that sold for £100,000, a passenger list at £104,000, and a Carpathia crew medal at £86,000, bringing Titanic-related sales to about £3 million.
- Isidor and Ida Straus, long associated with accounts of refusing to be separated during the disaster, were among the few first-class passengers who died in the 1912 sinking.