At an auction held by Henry Aldridge and Son in Wiltshire, England, a gold pocket watch belonging to a Titanic passenger was sold for a record-breaking $2.3 million.

The pocket chronometer by Jules Jurgensen had belonged to Isidor Straus, co-owner of America’s largest department-store chain. He was traveling with his wife Ida in a first-class cabin. When the ship began to sink, Straus refused to take a seat in a lifeboat as long as women and children remained on board. Ida likewise refused to leave the ship without her husband. This story inspired the poignant scene in James Cameron’s film, in which an elderly couple embraces in bed as their cabin fills with water.

 

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Isidor’s body was found in the Atlantic several days after the disaster, but Ida was never recovered.

The 18-karat gold watch had stopped at 2:20 a.m. – the exact moment the Titanic sank on the night of April 14–15, 1912. The chronometer had been a gift to Straus for his 43rd birthday and bore his engraved initials.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge noted that the record price reflects the enduring fascination with the story of the Titanic’s sinking and with the «majestic love story» of the Straus couple.

Earlier reports stated that a letter written by a surviving Titanic passenger had been sold at auction for $400,000.

Photo: Instagram @theoldemporiumdevizes