Titanic watch fails to sell after £50k estimate

A pocket watch shrouded in mystery during the sinking of the Titanic has failed to sell after going up for auction.

The gold timepiece, thought to have been handed to a crew member by passenger Albert Caldwell, was expected to fetch between £30,000 and £50,000 at Haslemere auction house John Nicholson's on Wednesday, but failed to meet its asking price.

It remains unknown whether the watch was handed over by the Caldwell family in gratitude or a bribe to secure their place on a lifeboat, with the family "left off the published list of survivors" following the disaster.

Auctioneer John Nicholson, from Haslemere, said: "Anything that is related to the Titanic in one way or another is valuable."

He added: "As an auctioneer you dream of getting something special like this, and it has been a pleasure to be associated with it.

"What is special is the history and the mystique of it, and the parts that we don't actually know."

Nicholson said the reason for the watch changing hands was never made clear.

The Caldwell family "disappeared so quickly" once they were rescued that "they were left off the published list of survivors" and headed home to Illinois, Nicholson said.

Albert Caldwell recalled the night of the disaster in a newspaper interview, where he said: "There arose upon the still waters such a bedlam of sound."

The watch was last bought at auction for £6,000 by its current owner, from Midhurst, West Sussex, at auction house Christie's in 1998.

Another gold watch linked to the Titanic, owned by the lead engineer of the RMS Carpathia, sold for £46,000 at auction in April.

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