Gold watch belonging to captain who rescued 700 Titanic survivors sells for £1.56 MILLION – in record-breaking sum

A GOLD pocket watch that once belonged to a captain who saved 700 passengers from the ill-fated Titanic has sold for an eye-watering amount.

The stunning 18-carat Tiffany & Co time piece sold for a record-breaking £1.56 million – marking the most any piece of Titanic memorabilia has ever fetched at auction.

The timepiece was presented to the captain of the RMS Carpathia, Arthur Rostron, who famously helped rescue survivors from the freezing North Atlantic Ocean.

The stunning watch was given to him by Mrs Astor and two other widows of high-profile and wealthy businessmen, who were also lost when the vessel sank.

Mrs Astor was onboard the doomed ship with her husband, John Jacob Astor, of the famed New York Astor family.

Mr Astor was 47 when he went down with the ship in 1912, after seeing his new wife Madeleine on to a lifeboat.

The timepiece bears an inscription reading “Presented to Captain Rostron with the heartfelt gratitude and appreciation of three survivors of the Titanic April 15th 1912 Mrs John B Thayer, Mrs John Jacob Astor and Mrs George D Widener”.

Captain Rostron received the gift from Mr Astor’s wife at a lunch at the family’s mansion on Fifth Avenue, New York, according to the auction house.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge of Henry Aldridge and Son, said: “It was presented principally in gratitude for Rostron’s bravery in saving those lives, because without Mr Rostron, those 700 people wouldn’t have made it.”

Mr Aldridge said the sale demonstrated the “enduring fascination” with the story of the Titanic.

The previous record was set in April when another gold pocket watch, recovered from the body of Mr Astor, sold for £1.175 million at the same auction house.

Both sale figures include fees and taxes paid by the buyer, the auctioneers said.

Astor’s 14 carat gold Waltham pocket watch, inscribed with his initials, was given to John’s son Vincent, who took the watch to be repaired it before wearing it himself until 1935.

He then passed it down to his godson, William Dobbyn.

The gold watch was acquired from the Dobbyn family by the private collector of Titanic memorabilia in the 1990s.

Since then it has been displayed at various museums including the National Geographic Exhibition in Washington DC and Titanic Museum ‘The World’s Largest Titanic Attraction’ in Missouri, US.

Mr Aldridge said that while historians were interested in the nuts and bolts of Titanic, it was different for collectors.

He said: “For collectors, it’s a different animal, they are interested in people.

“Every man, woman and child had a story to tell, and those stories are told over a century later through the memorabilia.”

The violin that was played as the ship sank held the record for the highest amount paid for Titanic artefacts for 11 years, after being sold for £1.1 million in 2013, the auctioneers said.

Mr Aldridge said the fact that this record has been broken twice in the past year illustrated that there is an “ever-decreasing supply and an ever-increasing demand” for memorabilia related to the ship.

Prices for the artefacts are going up “exponentially”, he said.

The two pocket watchers aren’t the only titanic memorabilia to go up for sale.

A rusty locker key from the unlucky vessel sold at auction for a staggering £85,000.

The key which opened a life jacket cupboard was one of more than 250 items from the perished ship sold in Devizes in Wiltshire and was one of the biggest involving Titanic memorabilia.

The key was used by 23-year-old Sidney Sedunary from Southampton who was working on board the ship as a steward and it helped save lives as the liner sank on its maiden voyage in 1912.

Meanwhile, a violin linked to Titanic band leader Wallace Hartley was discovered inside an attic.

The resident obtained the property from their late mother, who held onto a valuable instrument with a tragic past.