On April 10, 1912, the RMS Titanic, marketed as unsinkable, began its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, towards New York. As is well known, it never reached its destination but sank in the icy waters of the North Atlantic after colliding with an iceberg in the early hours of April 15. Of the 2,224 people on board, only 710 survived the disaster and 1,514 lost their lives.
Among those who perished was the richest man on board: 47-year-old American John Jacob Astor IV, whose fortune would be equivalent to several billion dollars today. After putting his pregnant wife Madeleine into lifeboat No. 4, Astor was last seen on board, smoking a cigarette and chatting with another passenger. His body was recovered from the water near the site of the accident a week after the sinking and taken to Halifax, Canada, where he was identified by his son Vincent based on the personal items he was carrying.
Related: The Most Valuable Artwork Lost on the Titanic
One of these personal objects was a gold pocket watch with the initials “JJA” engraved on it. The watch was passed down from Vincent Astor to the son of his father's secretary. On April 27, 2024, the timepiece went up for auction at Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd in Devizes, Wiltshire, the world's leading auction house for Titanic memorabilia.
Related: Pocket Watches: History, Revival, Trends & Tips
The estimate for the Astor pocket watch before the auction was £100,000- £150,000 (about $125,000-$189,000). However, the watch sold for a staggering £1.175 million (about $1.47 million), more than ten times the low estimate, to an American private collector.
The price represents a new record for Titanic memorabilia. The previous record was set in 2013 also by Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd, when a violin that had been played during the sinking sold for £1.1 million. The violin case for this same instrument was now part of the auction in which the pocket watch was sold and fetched £360,000.
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Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge commented on the prices for Titanic artifacts, saying, "They reflect not only the importance of the artifacts themselves and their rarity, but they also show the enduring appeal and fascination with the Titanic story. 112 years later, we are still talking about the ship and the passengers and the crew. The thing with the Titanic story, it's effectively a large ship hits an iceberg with a tragic loss of life, but more importantly is 2,200 stories. 2,200 subplots, every man, woman and child had a story to tell and then the memorabilia tells those stories today."
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