A gold pocket watch once owned by an elderly couple who drowned on the RMS Titanic has sold for an astonishing 1.78 million pounds — the equivalent of $2.3 million — setting a new record for memorabilia salvaged following the sinking of the ill-fated luxury liner.

Auctioneers said it surpassed the previous record of 1.56 million pounds set last year for a gold watch presented to the captain of the ship that rescued more than 700 survivors, according to the Daily Mail.

The London-based tabloid reported:

The 18-carat Jules Jurgensen engraved watch was owned by first-class passenger Isidor Straus, whose tragic story with his wife, Ida, became one of the defining legends of the 1912 catastrophe, which killed 1,500 people.

The couple were portrayed in James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster f

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