A water-damaged pocket watch recovered from a Danish victim of the Titanic disaster is expected to sell for as much as £50,000 (approximately $66,000) at an upcoming auction.
The watch belonged to 27-year-old Hans Christensen Givard, a second-class passenger who was among the more than 1,500 people who perished when the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in 1912. Givard was traveling to the United States with two friends, both of whom also died in the tragedy.
When his body was recovered from the North Atlantic and later buried in Halifax, Canada, several personal items were found in his pockets. These included a savings book, keys, wallet containing cash, a silver watch, a compass, a passport, and notably, a gilded ladies’ pocket watch showing signs of saltwater corrosion.
All items were returned to Givard’s family in Denmark. Now, more than a century later, his descendants are putting the watch up for auction.
The watch is featured in the book *Titanic, De Danske Fortællinger* (*Titanic, The Danish Stories*), co-authored by curator Jesper Hjermind and his niece, journalist Mette Hjermind McCall. It was also displayed in a 2012 Titanic exhibit in Copenhagen curated by Claes Goran Wetterholm, a leading expert on Scandinavian Titanic history.
The auction is set for April 26 at Henry Aldridge and Son in Devizes, Wiltshire. Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge emphasized the item’s significance, noting that it appears in the official inventory of Givard’s recovered belongings compiled by authorities in Halifax shortly after the disaster.
“This watch was one of the highlights of the 2012 Copenhagen exhibition,” Aldridge said. “Its movement is forever frozen at the moment the Titanic was lost, making it a hauntingly powerful relic of that night.”
