Mon Nov 17 09:00:00 UTC 2025: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Titanic Gold Pocket Watch, Belonging to Macy’s Co-Owner, Expected to Fetch Millions at Auction
WILTSHIRE, UK – A gold pocket watch recovered from the body of Isidor Straus, co-owner of Macy’s department store and one of the wealthiest passengers aboard the Titanic, is expected to sell for a staggering £1 million ($1.3 million) at auction on November 22nd. The auction will be conducted by Henry Aldridge & Son in Wiltshire, UK.
Straus, along with his wife Ida, perished in the tragic sinking of the Titanic on April 14, 1912, after the ship struck an iceberg en route from Southampton to New York. Isidor’s body was recovered days later, with the 18-carat gold Jules Jurgensen pocket watch among his possessions.
“With the watch, we are retelling Isidor’s story. It’s a phenomenal piece of memorabilia,” said auctioneer Andrew Aldridge to BBC Radio Wiltshire.
The watch, engraved with Straus’ initials, is believed to have been a gift from Ida in 1888. According to the auction house it stopped at 02:20, the exact moment the Titanic disappeared below the waves. The timepiece was returned to the Straus family and has been passed down through generations. Kenneth Hollister Straus, Isidor’s great-grandson, had the movement repaired and restored.
The story of Isidor and Ida Straus has become a poignant symbol of love and devotion. The auction house highlighted their love story, noting that Ida refused a place in a lifeboat, choosing to remain with her husband as the ship went down, mirroring the elderly couple depicted in James Cameron’s “Titanic” movie. Her body was never recovered.
In addition to the watch, a rare letter written by Ida aboard the Titanic, describing the ship’s luxury, will also be auctioned. The letter, postmarked from the Titanic’s onboard post office in Queenstown, Ireland, is estimated to fetch £150,000. She wrote: What a ship! So huge and so magnificently appointed. Our rooms are furnished in the best of taste and most luxurious.
The auction house said news of the sale had already generated significant interest from clients all over the world.
“[Theirs] was the ultimate love story – Isidor epitomised the American Dream, rising from humble immigrant to a titan of the New York establishment, owning Macy’s department store. As the ship was sinking, despite being offered a seat in a lifeboat, Ida refused to leave her husband and stated to him ‘Isidor we have been together all of these years, where you go, I go’,” a spokesperson for the auction house said.
“[This] is the reason why collectors are interested in the Titanic story 113 years later – every man, woman and child had a story to tell and those stories now are retold through these objects.”
If sold for its estimated value, the pocket watch could become one of the most expensive Titanic artifacts ever sold. Last year, a gold pocket watch presented to the captain of the Carpathia, the ship that rescued Titanic survivors, sold for a record-breaking £1.56 million.
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