Gold watch gifted to Titanic rescuer sells for record £1.56m

A gold pocket watch presented to Captain Arthur Rostron, who rescued over 700 Titanic survivors, has sold for a record-breaking £1.56 million at auction.

The sale, which took place on Saturday, marks the highest price ever paid for a piece of Titanic memorabilia.

The watch, an 18-carat Tiffany & Co. timepiece, was gifted to Rostron by three prominent widows of wealthy passengers who perished in the 1912 disaster. Among them was Madeleine Astor, widow of Titanic's wealthiest passenger, John Jacob Astor. The other donors were the widows of John B. Thayer and George D. Widener, both of whom also lost their lives aboard the ill-fated liner.

The watch, which features an inscription reading, "Presented to Captain Rostron with the heartfelt gratitude and appreciation of three survivors of the Titanic April 15th 1912," was given in recognition of Rostron’s bravery. He was the captain of the RMS Carpathia, the ship that responded to Titanic’s distress signals and rescued 705 passengers from lifeboats in the aftermath of the disaster.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge of Henry Aldridge & Son, who conducted the sale, remarked, “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.”

The previous record for a Titanic-related item was set in April, when a gold pocket watch recovered from the body of John Jacob Astor sold for £1.175 million. With this latest sale, Titanic memorabilia continues to captivate collectors, with prices for such artefacts rising sharply due to increasing demand and the limited availability of original items.

“The sale of this watch demonstrates the enduring fascination with the Titanic,” Andrew Aldridge noted. “Collectors are interested not just in the ship itself, but in the people and the stories that remain tied to it, more than a century later.”

The sale also surpassed the previous highest price for Titanic artefacts, which had been held by a violin that was played by bandleader Wallace Hartley as the ship sank. The violin fetched £1.1 million in 2013.

As the demand for Titanic-related items grows, Andrew Aldridge believes that the value of such memorabilia will continue to rise. “There’s an ever-decreasing supply and an ever-increasing demand,” he said. "It’s a phenomenon that shows no signs of slowing down."