A gold pocket watch recovered from the body of one of the richest passengers on the Titanic is speculated to garner $1.3 million when it will be sold at an auction on November 22.
Isidor Straus and his wife Ida were among the more than 1,500 people who died when the Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg 14 April 1912.
Straus’s body was recovered from the Atlantic several days after. His watch was found on him him: an 18 carat gold Jules Jurgensen pocket watch. It was returned to his family and has been passed down through generations.
Isidor Straus was a Bavarian-born American businessman, politician, and co-owner of Macy’s department store in New York.
His and his wife’s story is captured in James’ Cameron 1997 Titanic film, which features a haunting scene of an elderly couple embracing in bed as water floods their cabin.
Isidor’s devoted wife, Ida, ceded her place to her maid, when Isidor denied his privileged seat in favor of women and children. In tribute to their 40 years together, she chose to remain arm in arm with her husband on deck, where they perished.
Ida’s body, unlike Isidor’s, was never recovered.
Engraved with his initials, it is believed that the watch was an 1888 gift from Ida.
It stopped at 2:20 — the moment the Titanic disappeared beneath the waves. Or so legend has it.
“Isidor, we have been together all of these years, where you go, I go”, Ida was heard saying.
The watch, which has already captured the attention of prospective clients around the world, will be sold alongside a etter Ida wrote aboard the liner describing its luxury.
The letter is estimated at £150,000.
Las year, the gold pocket watch gifted to the captain of the Carpathia, which rescued over 700 Titantic survivors, sold last year for a record-breaking £1.56m .John Jacob Astor’s gold pocket watch also sold last year for £900,000.
Meanwhile, the violin played by Titanic’s bandmaster Wallace Hartley as the ship sank sold in 2013 for £1.1million.
