DALLAS— A pocket watch recovered from R.M.S. Titanic passenger Sinai Kantor, a Russian immigrant who got his wife to one of the liner’s few lifeboats before perishing in icy waters, sold for $57,500 on a winning bid cast by John Miottel, a collector of timepieces relating to the famous disaster. Heritage Auctions offered the pocket watch in its August 25 auction of Americana memorabilia.

Miottel operates the Miottel Museum and already owns timepieces from Titanic victims Col. John Jacob Astor, the liner’s richest passenger and the era’s richest person in the world, as well as a watch formerly owned by Oscar Woody, the Titanic‘s U.S. Postal Clerk. Miottel also holds the timepiece once owned by the first person to receive the distress call from the doomed Titanic, Harold Thomas Cottam, who served as a wireless operator on the rescue ship RMS Carpathia.

“It will take one of the primary spots in our collection,” Miottel said, where it will be added to the museum’s Ocean Liner Section.

The Swiss-made open-face silver-on-brass watch, with its original movement and a diameter of three inches, includes numerals that are Hebrew letters. The back cover has an embossed design that shows Moses holding the Ten Commandments.

The watch was sold with a letter of provenance from the descendant, along with copies of letters issued in the aftermath of the tragedy, sent to Miriam Kantor. The papers show it was not easy for Miriam to recover her husband’s belongings. Only after extensive legal effort did she receive the rest of his effects, which included clothing, Sinai’s Russian passport, a notebook, money, wallets, a “silver watch,” a telescope and a corkscrew, five weeks after the disaster. 

A full review of the auction will appear in a future issue.