The price was nearly 10 times the high estimate established by British auction house Aldridge & Son.
Published May 14, 2024 – BY Howard Cohen
Gold Watch Worn by Titanic’s Wealthiest Passenger Sells for $1.5M.
A GOLD WATCH worn by John Jacob Astor, the wealthiest passenger on the ill-fated Titanic, recently set an auction record as the most expensive piece of Titanic memorabilia. An American private collector paid $1.5 million for the 14-karat gold Waltham pocket watch engraved with the initials “J.J.A.” That was nearly 10 times the high estimate established by British auction house Aldridge & Son.
Astor and his new wife, Madeleine Talmadge Force, had been honeymooning in Europe and Egypt to allow the scuttlebutt surrounding their marriage to settle down in the states. The fact that Madeleine was just 18 years old and nearly 30 years his junior caused an uproar in the US, and gossip columnists were all over the story. The couple tied the knot in Newport, RI, in September of 1911, and stayed abroad until April 1912.
The couple was finally en route home when tragedy struck at 11:40 p.m. on April 14, 1912. The “unsinkable” Titanic clipped an iceberg in the waters 370 miles east of Newfoundland, Canada, and started to take on water.
Madeleine was safely loaded onto Lifeboat #4, but Astor was not allowed to join his wife. The officer in charge told him they could not accommodate any men until all the women and children were away.
