A special 14-karat gold pocket watch belonging to one of the world's wealthiest individuals in the early 20th century, and the richest passenger aboard the Titanic when it sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912, will be auctioned tomorrow, Saturday. This individual was American John Jacob Astor, who was smoking a cigarette on the ship's deck while chatting with a friend when the disaster began, ultimately drowning at the age of 47.
John Jacob Astor IV was a member of the famous Astor family. He was an inventor, a science fiction writer, a former fighter in the Spanish-American War, and a millionaire celebrity. He intended to embark on a European tour with his wife, Madeline, when they discovered she was pregnant. To ensure the child would be born in the United States, they booked a return trip on the Titanic, on which Astor perished along with 1,516 others out of 2,224 passengers and crew members aboard. His wife survived the disaster after being allowed to board a lifeboat. Astor failed to get on another lifeboat and was later found floating dead in the water after seven days, wearing a blue suit and a brown flannel shirt, identified later through the initials "JJA" embroidered on the breast pocket of his suit.
His watch, which also bore his initials on its cover, was found among his belongings and is a unique 14-karat gold pocket watch. It was part of his estate, worth $78 million, equivalent to $9 billion in today's purchasing power, and was inherited by his son Vincent, who was 20 at the time. Vincent later restored and repaired the watch, wearing it until 1935, and eventually gifted it to his close aide, William Dubin, who was Astor's executive secretary and close to Vincent. This watch will be presented in an auction organized by Henry Aldridge & Son, with expectations that it will sell for $200,000. The buyer will also receive cufflinks found in the clothing of the richest Titanic passenger.
