Titanic memorabilia sells for more than £1 million in Wiltshire

The 14-carat gold Waltham pocket watch was sold to a US collector for a record-breaking £1.175 million during an auction at Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes on Saturday, April 27.

It originally belonged to businessman John Jacob Astor, 47, who went down with the ship in 1912 after seeing new wife Madeleine onto a lifeboat.

His watch was recovered from his body seven days later and has now become the most expensive piece of Titanic memorabilia ever sold, the auctioneers said.

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The £1.175 million is inclusive of fees and taxes paid by the buyer.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge told the PA news agency that the prices fetched by the Titanic memorabilia at the sale were “absolutely incredible”.

The watch that sold for over £1 million in Wiltshire (Image: PA)

He said: “They reflect not only the importance of the artefacts themselves and their rarity but they also show the enduring appeal and fascination with the Titanic story.

“112 years later, we are still talking about the ship and the passengers and the crew.

“The thing with the Titanic story, it’s effectively a large ship hits an iceberg with a tragic loss of life, but more importantly is 2,200 stories.

“2,200 subplots, every man woman and child had a story to tell and then the memorabilia tells those stories today.”

Mr Astor was the richest man on board the vessel when it crashed.

He was last seen smoking a cigarette and chatting with a fellow passenger.

The watch that sold for over £1 million in Wiltshire (Image: PA)

Mr Aldridge added: “Astor is well known as the richest passenger aboard the RMS Titanic and was thought to be among the richest people in the world at that time, with a net worth of roughly 87 million US dollars – equivalent to several billion dollars today.

“At 11.40pm on April 14, 1912, the Titanic hit an iceberg and started to take on water.

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“At first, Astor did not believe the ship was in any serious danger, but later it was apparent she was sinking and the captain had started an evacuation after midnight, so he helped his wife into lifeboat four.”

Mrs Astor survived, and her husband’s body later recovered not far from the sinking.

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

It replaces a violin played while the ship sank as the most expensive piece of Titanic memorabilia.