A gold pocket watch that belonged to the richest man on the Titanic has sold at auction for a record £1.175 million, or about $1.5 million.
The watch was sold on Saturday to a private collector in the United States by Henry Aldridge & Son, an auction house in Devizes, Wiltshire, southwest England.
“Thank you to all our customers today in the room, online and on the phone,” we can read on the Henry Aldridge & Son Instagram account, adding that the sale of the watch had reached a “new house record” .
The watch had belonged to John Jacob Astor IV, a businessman and real estate developer who went down with the ship when it sank in the Atlantic Ocean in 1912.
“Astor is well known as the richest passenger aboard the RMS Titanic and was considered at the time to be one of the richest people in the world, with a net worth of approximately $87 million,” said Henry Aldridge & Son on its website.
Astor IV, who was 47 when the Titanic sank, helped his wife, Madeleine, onto a lifeboat and then smoked one last cigarette as the ship sank.
The 14-karat gold Waltham pocket watch, engraved JJA, was found on his body when he was recovered a week later.
The highest amount previously paid for a Titanic artifact was £1.1 million, or about $1.4 million, for a violin that band member Wallace Hartley apparently played in an attempt to calm passengers as the ship sank.
The violin case sold at the same auction on Saturday for £360,000, or about $455,000.
The RMS Titanic. Universal History Archives/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
The RMS Titanic sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean. Around 1,500 people are believed to have died as a result of this incident.
The ship was built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and was launched on 31 May 1911.
Last year, a submersible operated by shipping company OceanGate imploded while descending to view the wreck of the Titanic. All five passengers on board were killed.
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