Titanic Couple’s Watch Sets Record

Auctioneers have confirmed that this is the highest price ever paid for Titanic memorabilia. The previous record was £1.56 million, set last year by another gold pocket watch gifted to the captain of a boat that rescued more than 700 passengers.

The 18-carat Jules Jurgensen engraved watch belonged to first-class passenger Isidor Strauss, who drowned when the ship sank in April 1912, killing 1,500 people.

James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster Titanic film depicted him and his wife, Ida, as a couple embracing as the Titanic sank.

The watch was recovered from Mr. Strauss's body along with other personal belongings. The wealthy couple had been on the Titanic's boat deck on the night of the sinking. When Mr. Strauss was offered a seat on a lifeboat because of his age, he replied that he would not go before the other men.

Mrs. Strauss refused to leave her husband, and was last seen alive, facing fate in a deckchair.

They were among the very few first-class passengers who perished in the disaster.

A watch that remained in Mr. and Mrs. Strauss's family was sold by auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son Auctioneers in Devizes, Wiltshire.

A letter from Mrs. Strauss, written on Titanic stationery and posted to the ship, sold for £100,000.

The Titanic passenger list was purchased for £104,000, and a gold medal given to the crew of the RMS Carpathia by survivors sold for £86,000.

In total, the auction of Titanic memorabilia reached £3 million on Saturday.

Born in 1845 to a Jewish family in Otterberg, Bavaria, Mr. Strauss emigrated with his family to America in 1854.

In January 1912, he and his wife traveled to Jerusalem on the RMS Caronia and then returned to America via Southampton on the Titanic.

Auctioneer Andrew Eldridge said: "The world record price reflects the enduring interest in the Titanic story."

"Every man, woman, and child, whether passenger or crew, had a story to tell, and they have been told through memorabilia 113 years later.