According to British auction house Henry Aldridge & Son, the amount paid by an American buyer exceeded the estimate published before the sale, which ranged from 100,000 to 150,000 pounds sterling (116,000 to 175,000 euros).
This exceeds the previous record for a Titanic artifact at auction, set at £1.1 million, set in 2013 for a violin, according to the auction house.
The violin case was sold today for 360,000 pounds (420,000 euros) at the same auction in which the watch was sold.
The watch was engraved with the initials JJA and belonged to American businessman John Jacob Astor, who died at the age of 47 in the sinking of the Titanic, in the early hours of April 15, 1912.
Considered one of the richest men in the world at the time, with a fortune of $87 million, the equivalent of several billion today, he died on board the ship after seeing his new wife, Madeleine, on a lifeboat.
He was described in his final moments smoking a cigarette with another passenger, American writer Jack Futrell, both of whom were among the 1,500 people killed on board the Titanic.
His body was found on April 22, 1912, along with his 14-karat gold pocket watch.
The auction house said: “The watch was fully restored after being returned to the family” of John Jacob Astor and worn by his son, making it unique and one of the most important pieces in Titanic history.
FP // JMC
Losa/The End
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