The gold pocket watch that belonged to John Jacob Astor, one of the wealthiest passengers on the Titanic, has been sold at an auction in the United Kingdom for 1.36 million euros. The auction, held at the British auction house Henry Aldridge & Son, saw an American buyer win the bid, surpassing the estimated value of the watch, which was between 120 thousand and 180 thousand euros.
This amount exceeded the previous record set in 2013 for an item from the sunken ship when a violin was sold for almost 1.3 million euros. Today, the case of that musical instrument was sold for 425,000 euros. The gold watch was engraved with Astor’s initials JJA and belonged to him at the time of his tragic death on the Titanic in 1912.
Astor had a fortune of 87 million dollars equivalent to several billion today and perished on the ship after helping his wife into a lifeboat. His body was found a week later with several personal effects, including this historic artifact that is now owned by an American collector who is fascinated by tales of the Titanic tragedy and its passengers.
