Titanic's Wealthiest Passenger's Gold Watch to Be Auctioned Soon

A gold watch left by John Jacob Astor IV, a prominent American business magnate who died in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, is going up for auction.

A gold watch left by John Jacob Astor IV.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to CNN in the United States on the 26th (local time), the gold watch worn by Astor IV at the time of the Titanic sinking will be auctioned on the 27th by the British auction house Henry Aldridge & Son.

Astor IV was known as the wealthiest passenger aboard the Titanic.

The auction house estimated the expected winning bid for this gold watch to be between ?100,000 and ?150,000 (approximately 170 million to 260 million KRW).

The gold watch was discovered along with other personal belongings such as gold cufflinks, a diamond ring, money, and a notebook when Astor IV’s body was recovered after the Titanic sank.

These belongings were handed over to the family, and Astor IV’s son, Vincent Astor, gave the watch as a baptismal gift in 1935 to the son of William Doheny IV, who had been Astor IV’s secretary.

The family of William Doheny IV kept the watch until the late 1990s. Afterward, a U.S. buyer purchased the watch, loaned it as an exhibit to several museums, and has now put it up for auction, CNN reported.

The auction house commented, "Literally millions of people have seen this watch over the years," calling it "an extraordinary thing."

Meanwhile, besides the gold watch, the auction will also include Astor IV’s cufflinks and a violin case that reportedly contained the violin played when the Titanic sank. The expected winning bid for the cufflinks is up to ?8,000 (about 14 million KRW), and the violin case is expected to fetch up to ?120,000 (about 200 million KRW).