Titanic's 'richest man' watch could fetch up to £150k at auction in England on Saturday

Businessman John Jacob Astor, 47, went down with the ship in 1912 after seeing new wife Madeleine onto a lifeboat.

Rather than try his luck with another safety vessel, impeccably dressed Astor, who was a prominent member of the wealthy Astor family, was last seen smoking a cigarette and chatting with a fellow passenger.

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

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.

"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," Mr Aldridge added.

The top price previously paid at auction for a Titanic related item was the $1.7m (£900k) in 2013 for the violin of the ship’s band leader Wallace Hartley.

The second highest price was paid for a 32-foot long naval architect’s plan of Titanic that played a key role at the inquest in 1912. The technical drawing sold for $361k (£220k) at auction in 2011.