Hollywood turned Isidor and Ida Straus into the elderly couple embracing as the Titanic sank in James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster.
But the real story of how they refused to leave each other's side on that freezing April night in 1912 is even more powerful than the movie version.
And now a gold watch from Macy's owner who died on the Titanic just shattered every auction record.
The watch that stopped at 2:20 a.m. April 15, 1912
The 18-carat Jules Jurgensen watch sold Saturday at Henry Aldridge & Son Auctioneers in England for £1.78 million.¹
That's $2.32 million in American dollars — blowing past the previous record of $1.9 million set just last year for another Titanic pocket watch.²
Straus received the engraved gold watch as a gift for his 43rd birthday in 1888, the same year he became a partner in R.H. Macy & Co.³
The watch remained with his family for more than a century before the sale.
That's not all that sold Saturday.
https://twitter.com/Alexei_Mikhail5/status/1993005056728482047?s=20
A letter Ida Straus wrote on Titanic stationery describing the ship as "so huge and so magnificently appointed" went for $131,000.⁴
The entire auction brought in £3 million — roughly $3.92 million — proving collectors can't get enough of the ill-fated luxury liner's story 113 years later.
Why the Straus story commands premium prices
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge explained why certain Titanic items fetch astronomical prices while others don't.
"Every man, woman and child had a story," Aldridge said. "But one of the most crucial elements to their value is who they belong to."⁵
The Strauses' story hits different because eyewitnesses watched their final moments play out.
When Lifeboat 8 was loading passengers, Ida Straus almost boarded with her maid Ellen Bird around 1:00 a.m.⁶
Officers offered 67-year-old Isidor a seat because of his age and wealth.
He refused flat-out. "I will not go before the other men," he told Colonel Archibald Gracie IV, a fellow passenger who survived.⁷
Ida stepped back from the lifeboat and stood beside her husband.
She handed her full-length mink coat to her maid and told Ellen to get in the boat.
"We have lived together for many years," Ida told Isidor. "Where you go, I go."⁸
Witnesses last saw the couple sitting in deck chairs, arm in arm, as the ship went down at 2:20 a.m.⁹
Isidor's body was recovered two weeks later by the cable ship Mackay-Bennett and taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
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Ida's remains were never found.
The couple had been married for 41 years and raised seven children together.
They wrote to each other every day whenever business forced them apart.
From Bavarian immigrant to American success story
Straus was born in Otterberg, Bavaria in 1845 into a Jewish family.¹⁰
His father Lazarus immigrated to the United States in 1852, with young Isidor and the rest of the family following in 1854.
The family settled first in Columbus, Georgia, then Talbotton, where Lazarus opened a dry goods store.
After the Civil War, the Straus family moved to New York and opened L. Straus & Sons, an earthenware business.
That business eventually became the china and glassware department at Macy's.
By 1888, Isidor and his brother Nathan became partners of Macy's.
Eight years later in 1896, the brothers gained full ownership of R.H. Macy & Co.¹¹
The department store at Herald Square in Manhattan still has a memorial plaque on the main floor honoring Isidor and Ida.
Isidor also served briefly in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1894 to 1895 as a Democrat representing New York's 15th Congressional District.¹²
The couple was traveling first class on the Titanic after spending the winter of 1911-1912 in southern France.
They switched from another ship to the Titanic because of a coal strike in England that diverted coal from other vessels to the luxury liner.¹³
That decision cost them their lives — but also gave the world one of history's greatest love stories.
A memorial at Straus Park in Manhattan bears an inscription from 2 Samuel 1:23: "Lovely and pleasant they were in their lives, and in death they were not divided."
A cenotaph outside their mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx contains a quote from Song of Solomon: "Many waters cannot quench love—neither can the floods drown it."¹⁴
The Strauses proved that truth 113 years ago when they chose to die together rather than live apart.
And collectors just proved they're willing to pay record prices to own a piece of that story.
¹ Freddie Clayton, "Titanic passenger Isidor Straus's pocket watch sells for $2.3 million," NBC News, November 23, 2025.
² -⁵ Ibid.
⁶ "The Heartbreaking Truth Behind the Iconic Death Scene of the Elderly Couple on 'Titanic,'" History Collection, accessed November 24, 2025.
⁷ "Isidor Straus," Wikipedia, last modified November 23, 2025.
⁸ "The real Titanic love story of Ida and Isidor Strauss," The Vintage News, June 21, 2017.
⁹ "A Love that Defied Death," RMS Titanic, Inc., February 3, 2025.
¹⁰ "Isidor Straus," Wikipedia, last modified November 23, 2025.
¹¹ Ibid.
¹² Ibid.
¹³ "Ida Straus," Wikipedia, last modified October 16, 2025.
¹⁴ "Isidor Straus," Wikipedia, last modified November 23, 2025.
