The 18-carat Jules Jurgensen gold watch belonged to Isidor Straus who, along with his wife, lost his life when the ship sank
A gold pocket watch that belonged to a man who died on board the Titanic when it sank has sold for a record sum.
The watch, which belonged to 67-year-old Isidor Straus, went for £1.78m at auction, the highest amount ever paid for Titanic memorabilia. He was given the watch, an engraved 18-carat Jules Jurgensen, as a gift on his 43rd birthday in 1888.
The previous record sale of an item related to the Titanic was achieved last year, when a different gold pocket watch, which was presented to the captain of a ship that rescued more than 700 passengers from the liner, was sold for £1.56m.
Straus was born into a Jewish family in Otterberg, Bavaria, in 1845, before emigrating to the US with his family in 1854. It was in there that Straus made his name, becoming a partner in the New York department store Macy’s. Straus and his wife, Ida, were two of the more than 1,500 passengers who lost their lives when the Titanic sank in 1912, and two of the only first class passengers who died in the tragedy.
