A gold pocket watch that belonged to the richest man on the Titanic has sold at auction for a record-breaking £1.175 million, which is roughly $1.5 million.

The watch had belonged to John Jacob Astor IV, a businessman and real estate developer who went down with the ship when it sank in the Atlantic Ocean in 1912.

Astor IV, who was 47 at the time the Titanic sank, helped his wife, Madeleine, onto a lifeboat and then smoked a last cigarette as the ship went down.

The 14-carat gold Waltham pocket watch, engraved JJA, was found on his body when it was recovered a week later.