Man Died on Titanic Wearing Watch That Just Sold for Historic $2.3M

A pocket watch owned by a first-class passenger on the Titanic made history after it sold for $2.3 million at an auction in England — the most that’s ever been paid for a piece of memorabilia from the doomed voyage. 

Heightening its allure, the timepiece is linked to a love story that became immortalized in a scene in the iconic, eponymous film of the disaster. 

“The world-record price illustrates the enduring interest in the Titanic story,” Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge from Henry Aldridge & Son, located in Devizes, Wiltshire, told The Guardian of the gold watch given to Isidor Straus by his wife, Ida. The item sold for the historic amount on Saturday, Nov. 22, The Guardian and The New York Times and NBC News reported.

“Every man, woman and child passenger or crew had a story to tell and they are told 113 years later through the memorabilia,” Aldridge told The Guardian.

The couple died when the Titanic sank in the Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912, after Ida refused to leave her husband’s side. Isidor’s body was later found, and the watch was recovered from his body, according to the auction house. 

“The Strauses were the ultimate love story,” Aldridge said of the story behind the 18-carat Jules Jurgensen watch, The Guardian reported. “Ida refusing to leave her husband of 41 years as the Titanic sank, and this world-record price is testament to the respect that they are held in.”

The previous record-holder for artifacts from the fated vessel was another gold watch. A captain of a ship who saved 700 people from the sinking Titanic was presented with the watch, which later sold for more than $2 million, according to the paper.

In 1888, Ida gave the watch to her husband to mark his 43rd birthday. It was also the year that Isidor and his brother, Nathan, became full partners of New York City’s iconic Macy’s department store, according to the auction house. 

Years later, while aboard the sinking ship, Isidor refused to get on a lifeboat, wanting other men to go first. No matter what he and other passengers said, they couldn’t convince Ida to leave his side.

“I will not be separated from my husband; as we have lived, so will we die together,” Ida said, according to the organization. Her body was never found, and more than 1,500 people died when the liner sank. 

“They were last seen sitting on deck chairs, facing fate by each other’s side,” Henry Aldridge & Son continued, “the ultimate real love life story.”

The Strauses inspired a fictional scene in James Cameron’s 1997 film, Titanic. In the film, a couple held each other in bed as freezing water breached their cabin, The New York Times noted.