A pocket watch that went down with the Titanic in the pocket of business magnate Isidor Straus will recall one of the disaster’s most moving stories when it is auctioned next month.
The timepiece will be sold at Titanic specialists Henry Aldridge and Son in their November 22 sale.
Among the stories from the night of April 15, 1912, that of the Strauses, owners of New York department store Macy’s, is one of the most moving.
Isidor and Ida Straus were married in 1871 and had seven children. They were returning to New York from a European holiday when tragedy struck.
Macy’s Herald Square in 1907 when the store chain was owned by the Straus family. They are memorialised in the store and in several sites in New York.
Ida would have been allowed on a lifeboat as women and children were evacuated. She refused to leave her husband, who refused to use their relationship and his age as a justification for taking a place before all women and children on board had left the ship.
The watch was recovered from Isidor’s body.
It is an 18-karat-gold Jules Jurgensen watch initialled IS.
Alongside the watch is a letter from Isidor postmarked from onboard the doomed liner as it set sail from the UK to the US via Ireland.
That is expected to realise between £100,000 and £150,000.
The watch carries an estimate of £800,000 to £1 million.
Titanic watches are an interesting sub-category of relics of the most famous shipwreck in history. Watches have a well developed collecting culture in their own right. At the time of the disaster they would have been among the most valued items carried by passengers. And they’re robust enough to survive the appalling conditions of the icy north Atlantic.
In 2024, the watch awarded to rescue ship captain Arthur Rostron was auctioned for £1.5 million. It is the most valuable Titanic watch.
A watch worn by John Astor, the wealthiest man on board, was sold for £1.1 million.
A more humble timepiece, belonging to Russian Jewish refugee Sinai Kantor, was also sold last year, for £97,000. Mr Kantor’s watch stopped at the time of the wreck. His wife Miriam was saved.
