A gold pocket watch that belonged to a man who died on board the Titanic when it sank has sold for a record sum.

The watch, which belonged to 67-year-old Isidor Straus, went for £1.78m at auction, the highest amount ever paid for Titanic memorabilia. He was given the watch, an engraved 18-carat Jules Jurgensen, as a gift on his 43rd birthday in 1888.

The previous record sale of an item related to the Titanic was achieved last year, when a different gold pocket watch, which was presented to the captain of a ship that rescued more than 700 passengers from the liner, was sold for £1.56m.

Straus was born into a Jewish family in Otterberg, Bavaria, in 1845, before emigrating to the US with his family in 1854. It was in there that Straus made his name, becoming a partner in the New York depar

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