A gold watch belonging to Macy’s co-owner Isidor Straus, who died on the Titanic, is expected to fetch $1 million at auction. The former congressman’s 18-carat treasure was recovered from the wreckage of the unsinkable ship, which sank in 1912. He was given the watch as a 43rd birthday present by his wife, Ida. The Sun reports it stopped at 2.20 a.m., the minute the ship went under. It was recovered from the wreckage and passed down through generations, eventually being fixed by great-grandson Kenneth Hollister Straus. It is to be auctioned by Henry Aldridge & Son in the U.K. Their demise was depicted in a crushing scene in James Cameron’s 1997 smash hit, Titanic. In one of its most potent moments, the two cradle each other in bed as their cabin fills with water. The Bavarian had served as a representative for New York from 1894 until 1895, when he took over Macy’s with his brother Nathan. Their elevated social status should have guaranteed them a place on the lifeboats, but reports claim Isidor refused because there were still women and children on board. Ida opted to die with him rather than go on alone. A letter written by Ida to a friend shortly after departure from Southampton, U.K., is also expected to fetch $150,000. “What a ship! So huge and so magnificently appointed,” she penned.
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