A HISTORIC watch which stopped at exactly the time the illfated Titanic sank beneath the waves of the north Atlantic is expected to sell for around £25,000 when it is auctioned in Southampton in April.

Chauffeur, John Gill, 24, perished along with 1,520 others when the liner struck an iceberg in 1912.

When his possessions were later recovered, the £15 Waltham watch engraved with the letter 'DJ' was found to show the time 3.21am.

The stern of the 46,328 tonnes ship was recorded to have disappeared into the freezing waters at 2.20 am.

But because the ship sailed into a different time zone during the night of the tragedy, it is likely Mr Gill never wound his clock back an hour before going to bed.

The watch and the rest of his possessions including a collar stud and comb were returned to his widow Sarah who lived in Clevedon Somerset.

She had it repaired and fitted with new works but for sentimental reasons kept the original clock face showing the hands at 21 minutes past three.

The watch was later handed down through the Gill family until a nephew of John Gill sold it along with the other possessions at an auction in London.

The timepiece, comb, collar stud, postcards and letters sent by the White Star Line to Mrs Gill in the aftermath of the tragedy are now being sold at another auction.

Although the watch is expected to sell for £25,000 the entire collection is being tipped to fetch between £75,000 and £100,000.

Andrew Aldridge, Titanic specialist with auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son in Devizes in Wiltshire, said: We are getting a considerable amount of interest in this item already.

This is probably one of the most important collections of Titanic memorabilia. As soon as the watch entered the sea, its steel components would have been ruined and it would have stopped.

Given that the ship hit the iceberg at 11.45 pm and sunk at 2.20 am it is reasonable to assume that Mr Gill never wound it back an hour in between. Give or take a minute, the watch stopped at the same time the ship went down and it has remained in that position ever since.

It is a microcosm of time. When the watch died, so did the ship. It has signified the end of a life ever since.

Mr Gill's wife decided to keep it that way for sentimental reasons and passed it down through her family.

Waltham was a good quality watch and would have cost about £15, 90 years ago. The goldplated case was made in Philadelphia."

It is thought Mr Gill bought the watch after moving from Somerset to Wisconsin USA in 1908. He worked there as a chauffer and had been saving up enough to sail back to Britain to marry Sarah, who was his childhood sweetheart. He returned to her home in Somerset in 1912 and the couple were married on Valentine's Day.

They planned to start a new life in America and saved £26 for two second class tickets for the Titanic. But at the last minute, Mrs Gill was prevented from going due to a family problem and waved off her husband at the White Star pier in Southampton.

No one knows where Mr Gill was when the Titanic sank or if he stayed on board to the end or jumped into the sea.

His body was pulled from the water on April 23 along with his remaining belongings including the watch.

The watch was sold to an anonymous American who has asked for it to be auctioned.

The auction will be held during the annual British Titanic Society Convention at the Hilton Hotel in Southampton on April 12.

- Originally published February 2002.