RMS “Titanic”: – Staggering “Titanic” record

“Titanic” seems to never go out of “fashion”. The 112-year-old shipwreck continues to make headlines around the world, and props from the filming and memorabilia from the passengers are constantly being sold for sky-high sums at auctions.

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As recently as March, the controversial “Titanic” door from the blockbuster film had a new owner. The price of what is probably the world’s most talked about door came to an insane 718,750 dollars – the equivalent of NOK 7.9 million.

New record

Last November, a person shelled out £83,000 – over NOK 1.1 million – to secure the dinner menu from 11 April 1912, which was served to passengers in first class.

Now a gold pocket watch has broken all previous records, writes Sky News.

The watch is said to have belonged to the ship’s richest person, John Jacob Astor (47), and was sold by the auction house Henry Aldridge and Son Ltd in Devizes in Wiltshire, USA.

The watch – bearing the initials JJA – was expected to fetch between £100,000 and £150,000. But by all accounts it was a race for the clock, with the winning bid eventually ending up at a staggering £1.175m.

This corresponds to approximately NOK 16.2 million at today’s exchange rate. The buyer must have been a private collector.

“Amazing”

Astor’s gold watch thus beat the record set in 2013, when a “Titanic” violin was sold for £1.1 million.

The violin is said to have belonged to the English violinist Wallace Hartley, who was the bandmaster on board the RMS “Titanic”. Together with the orchestra, he played on the top deck until the ship sank in the cold Atlantic.

Andrew Aldridge of auction house Henry Aldridge and Son tells Sky News that the watch sale is “absolutely incredible”.

– 112 years later, we still talk about the ship, the passengers and the crew. The price not only reflects the importance of the object itself and its rarity, but also demonstrates the enduring fascination with the ‘Titanic’.

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Furthermore, Aldridge believes that what is even more important than the ship itself is the 2,200 passengers who were on board.

– Every man, every woman and every child has a story. These various objects and memorabilia continue to tell their story to this day.

Born after the shipwreck

The original owner of the gold watch, John Jacob Astor, went down with the Titanic on April 15, 1912, after helping his 18-year-old pregnant wife Madeleine Astor aboard a lifeboat.

According to Sky News, the 47-year-old was last seen with a cigarette on the deck, while talking to other passengers.

Astor’s remains, in addition to the gold watch, were found in the Atlantic Ocean seven days after the sinking. When the “Titanic” sank, it was believed that he was one of the world’s richest people. In 1912, Astor is said to have been good for 87 million dollars.

Madeleine Astor gave birth to the couple’s only son, John Jacob Astor VI, four months later.

In the Oscar-winning film “Titanic” from 1997, John Jacob Astor and Madeleine Astor are portrayed by the actors Eric Braeden and Charlotte Chatton.