A pocket watch that belonged to the richest passenger of the Titanic, John Jacob Astor, was sold for almost 1.2 million pounds ($1.5 million). Thus, the exhibit became the most expensive artifact related to the ship that sank 112 years ago.
Gold the watch was put up for auction Henry Aldridge & Son, held in the British town of Devizes, Wiltshire. The auction was quite successful – the price of the lot increased more than 10 times. Initially, the auction house planned to sell the watch for 100 – 150 thousand pounds.
John Jacob Astor, 47, went down with the ship on April 15, 1912, after helping his wife into a lifeboat. Instead of trying to get on another boat and save his life, the businessman gave others a chance. The last time those who managed to escape saw a prominent member of the wealthy Astor family on the deck of the ship, which was going down. He calmly smoked and talked with one of the passengers of the Titanic. Mrs. Astor survived. The body of her husband was found not far from the place of flooding.
The businessman’s body was pulled out of the Atlantic Ocean seven days after the shipwreck. In Astor’s pocket was a 14k gold Waltham pocket watch engraved with the initials JJA.
At the time, Mr. Astor was considered one of the richest men in the world. His fortune was about $87 million, which is equivalent to several billion dollars today.
Before the sale of Astor’s watch, the most expensive artifact from the Titanic was the violin, which the musicians played for the passengers when the ship began to sink. The musical instrument was sold in 2013 for 1.1 million pounds.
