Titanic pocket watch: gold pocket watch belonging to oldest Titanic passenger up for auction

A gold pocket watch recovered from the body of the richest man on the Titanic might bring in £150,000 at auction.

In 1912, businessman John Jacob Astor, 47, saw his new, pregnant wife Madeleine onto a lifeboat before going down with the ship.

Astor was refused entry onto a lifeboat due to the "women and children first" protocol. He reportedly asked if he could join his wife due to her pregnancy, but this request was also denied.

The well-dressed Astor, a member of the wealthy Astor family, was last seen smoking a cigarette and conversing with a fellow passenger, choosing not to try his luck with another safety craft.

Seven days later, his body was retrieved from the Atlantic Ocean, and his exquisite 14-carat gold Waltham pocket watch - engraved JJA - was found.

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The watch is tipped to fetch between £100,000 and £150,000 when it goes under the hammer at auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes, Wiltshire, on Saturday (27 April).

“Astor is well known as the richest passenger aboard the RMS Titanic and was thought to be among the richest people in the world at that time, with a net worth of roughly 87 million US dollars – equivalent to several billion dollars today,” said auctioneer Andrew Aldridge.

“At 11.40pm on April 14 1912 the Titanic hit an iceberg and started to take on water. At first, Astor did not believe the ship was in any serious danger but later it was apparent she was sinking and the captain had started an evacuation after midnight, so he helped his wife into lifeboat 4.”

Mrs Astor survived, and her husband’s body was recovered on April 22 not far from the sinking. The watch was passed by Mr Astor’s son Vincent to the son of his father’s executive secretary, William Dobbyn.

“The watch itself was completely restored after being returned to Mr Astor’s family and worn by his son, making it a unique part of the Titanic story and one of the most important pieces of horological history relating to the most famous ship in the world,” Aldridge added.

Astor's great-grandfather, John Jacob Astor, made a fortune in fur trading and real estate, establishing the family's vast wealth. John Jacob Astor IV himself inherited around $87 million (£69.7 million) from his father's estate when he was just 20 years old.

Astor was more than just a wealthy heir; he was also an inventor, writer and real estate developer. He dabbled in various business ventures, including real estate in New York City, where he developed several prominent buildings, including the famous Astoria Hotel.

He was also passionate about literature and wrote several science fiction novels.