Titanic victim’s gold watch sets new £1.78m auction record

A gold pocket watch recovered from the body of Isidor Straus, one of the wealthiest passengers aboard the RMS Titanic, has sold for a record-breaking £1.78 million at an auction in Wiltshire.

Straus, an American businessman, politician, and co-owner of Macy’s department store, died alongside his wife, Ida, when the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank on April 14, 1912, claiming more than 1,500 lives.

The 18-carat Jules Jurgensen watch was among the personal items retrieved when his body was recovered days after the disaster.

According to the BBC, the watch had remained in the Straus family for generations before being offered for sale by Henry Aldridge and Son Auctioneers, where it went under the hammer on Saturday.

The couple’s tragic love story has long been one of the most enduring tales from the Titanic.

Ida famously refused to board a lifeboat without her husband, declaring she would not leave him behind.

The two spent their final moments together on the sinking ship.

Her body was never found.

The auction featured several other high-value Titanic relics, contributing to a total sale of £3 million.

These included a letter Ida Straus wrote on Titanic stationery, which sold for £100,000; a passenger list that fetched £104,000; and a gold medal awarded to members of the rescue ship RMS Carpathia, which sold for £86,000.

The pocket watch, which had stopped at 02:20—the exact time the Titanic disappeared beneath the Atlantic—was believed to have been a gift from Ida to Isidor on his 43rd birthday in 1888.

After its recovery, the watch was passed down through the family, and Straus’s great-grandson, Kenneth Hollister Straus, later restored its movement.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge described the sale as achieving a “world record price,” saying it reflects the enduring global fascination with the Titanic.

“Every passenger and crew member had their own story, and more than a century later, these objects allow those stories to live on,” he said.

Last year, the previous record was set when a gold pocket watch presented to the captain of the Carpathia—the ship that rescued more than 700 survivors—sold for £1.56 million.