The Mystery of the Broken Watch Sold for 3.4 Billion Won: It Marks the Moment the Titanic Sank

[Financial News] A pocket watch carried by a passenger during the RMS Titanic disaster has been sold at auction for £1.78 million (approximately 3.4 billion won).
On the 22nd (local time), the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported that a pocket watch, once the possession of a Titanic passenger 113 years ago, was recently auctioned off. The hour and minute hands of the watch are frozen at the time the Titanic went under. The original owner was identified as Isidor Straus, who was then the co-owner of Macy's in New York.
According to Henry Aldridge & Son, Isidor was traveling with his wife, Rosalie Ida Straus, at the time of the tragedy. The couple, who boarded the RMS Titanic, became victims of the historic sinking on April 14, 1912.
The watch, discovered on Isidor Straus’s body several days after the disaster, was a product of the Danish watch brand Jules Jürgensen. Crafted from 18K gold, the pocket watch is believed to have been a gift from his wife to celebrate his 43rd birthday in 1888.
Straus’s initials are engraved on the watch, and it appears he had kept it for over 20 years until the tragedy.
Meanwhile, the BBC reported that Rosalie Ida Straus chose not to board a lifeboat and instead stayed with her husband until the end. The watch, which sank with them, still marks the moment the Titanic disappeared beneath the waves. Her body was never recovered.
bng@fnnews.com Kim Hee-sun Reporter