A gold watch which once belonged to the richest man to sail on the Titanic is coming up for sale at auction.
The watch once belonged to the legendary American magnate, John Jacob Astor. Astor was one of the world’s wealthiest men when he boarded the ship in 1912. A relic of a bygone world, Astor was an investor, writer, developer and once a colonel in the Spanish-American war. At the time he was worth $87 million, probably equivalent to $2.75bn today. Astor was last seen smoking on the bridge of the Titanic as the ship went down. His body was found seven days later and identified by his initials sewn into his lapels.
Amid the panic of the sinking ship, in the icy Atlantic night, he helped his pregnant wife Madeleine into a lifeboat. He was then turned back by First Officer Charles Lightoller. At this point Astor seems to have accepted a terrible fate. Was he driven by a sense of duty? Of hope? Invincibility? Or pure fatalism? Instead of trying to find a space on another lifeboat, he resorted to the starboard wing of the bridge, where he stood smoking with another first class passenger until he succumbed to the frigid ocean.
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Astor was 47 when he died – and, needless to say, was immortalised by the grandeur of his life, wealth and achievements and his terrible death. One can only imagine the whispers of envy Astor and Madeleine had probably been met with, only hours earlier, as the richest passengers on the opulent decks.
When Astor was recovered, he was in a blue suit and brown flannel shirt. The watch, a 14-carat gold Waltham pocket watch, also bore his initials, was removed from his corpse and along with his vast estate was left to his son, Vincent, who was just 20.
Vincent later restored the watch and wore it for decades until he gifted it to his godson, one William Dobbyn himself the son of a John Jacob’s executive secretary, William Dobbyn Sr. The restoration was no mean feat, given that the watch had spent a week alone in the wild North Atlantic. Dobbyn, legend has it, had been due to sail with John Jacob but decided to remain in Cherbourg at the last minute.
The watch was acquired from the Dobbyn family by a collector of Titanic memorabilia in the 1990s. It will now be sold at Henry Aldridge & Son who specialise in Titanic-related items. The estimate ranges from £100,000-£150,000. Along with the watch, a set of gold cufflinks owned by Astor and his plan of first-class accommodation on the Titanic will be sold.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: ‘The watch is one of the most remarkable items of Titanic memorabilia we have come across.
‘It is an exquisite timepiece that is in superb condition, which is unsurprising considering who its original owner was.
‘It was obviously of great sentimental value to Vincent Astor, who had it restored and wore it for the next 23 years.’
The sale takes place this Saturday.
