The watch of the richest man on the Titanic sold for £1.2 million

The Titanic A wallet found on the body of the richest man on board to sleep Of the clock The record has been sold for 11 lakh 75 thousand pounds.

Auctioneers said the watch was bought by a US private collector at Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes, Wiltshire, on Saturday and sold for the highest amount ever paid for Titanic memorabilia.

The watch’s original owner, 47-year-old businessman John Jacob Astor, sank with the ship in 1912 after seeing his new wife Madeleine on a lifeboat.

According to auctioneers, the previous highest price for Titanic artefacts was £1.1 million paid for a violin that was played during the sinking and sold at the same auction house in 2013.

A spokesman for the auctioneers said the £1.175 million was inclusive of buyer’s fees and taxes.

The case of the violin also sold for £360,000 including tax and fees at the same Henry Aldridge & Son auction house where the pocket watch was sold on Saturday.

This watch, which sank with the ship in 1912, was owned by businessman John Jacob Astor (Henry Aldridge & Son).

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said the prices fetched for Titanic memorabilia during the sale were ‘absolutely unbelievable’.

He said: ‘This reflects not only the importance of artefacts and their rarity, but also the enduring fascination and fascination with the Titanic story.

‘112 years later, we still the shiptalking about passengers and crew.

‘The story of the Titanic is not just about a huge ship that hit an iceberg and caused a tragic loss of life. That’s about 2,200 individual stories.

‘2,200 individual stories, every man woman and child had a story to tell and then the artefacts tell those stories today.’

‘Ester was reputed to be the richest passenger on board the RMS Titanic and considered one of the richest men in the world at the time (Bateman Archive)

Rather than board another safety boat and try his luck, the smartly dressed Easter, an important member of the wealthy Easter family, was last seen smoking a cigarette and chatting with a fellow passenger.

Seven days later, his body was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean and his 14-karat gold Waltham pocket watch, engraved with JJA, was found.

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Aldridge said: ‘Easter was reputed to be the richest passenger on board the RMS Titanic and was considered one of the richest men in the world at the time, with a net worth of around US$87 million. It is equivalent to several billion dollars today.

‘On April 14, 1912 at 11:40 p.m., the Titanic struck an iceberg and began to fill with water.

‘At first Esther didn’t believe the ship was in serious danger, but later it became clear that it was sinking and the captain had started evacuating people after midnight, so he gave his wife life support. Helped to board Boat Four.

Mrs. Easter survived and her husband’s body was found on April 22 not far from the drowning site.

The watch was given by Mr Astor’s son Vincent to the son of his father’s executive secretary, William Dobbin.