The Perfect Gift

You'd think that everyone would have had enough of the Titanic by now, but just when you think the fuss is fading, someone has to come along and resurrect the dead.

What fresh nautical hell is this? Watchmaker Romain Jerome has crafted the perfect gift, a unique timepiece for the person who must have that which is most rare. What time is it? Time to buy your very own piece of the Titanic, to wear upon your wrist. Am I the only one who finds this somewhat gruesome?

The Geneva firm bought a piece of the hull that had been retrieved on a previous expedition to the watery graveyard. No less than Harland and Wolff, the Belfast shipbuilders who put the Titanic together, have certified that the metal used in the watches is genuine. The timepiece will not look like a rough, rusty chunk of metal plating, of course. When one pays anywhere from 6,000 to 128,500 euro, one expects a certain degree of elegance and style.

In Switzerland, Romain Jerome made an alloy, combining the Titanic's steel with bits of Harland and Wolff steel that will be used to craft a replica of the ship. So it's a touch of old and a dollop of new. There's to be some gold and platinum detailing, to create the requisite artistic statement, but wait, there's more.

The watch face will be black lacquer, owing to the coal that is included. The very coal that would have fueled the ship had she not sunk, the same chunks of coal that were retrieved out of the debris field, will become a component of the watch. Perhaps they could also make use of some of the shoes that were also found in the debris field, the shoes that were worn by the many victims as they died and their bodies sank to the bottom of the ocean. Watches have leather straps, after all, and wouldn't that be the talk of the corner office.

Yvan Arpa, the head of Romain Jerome, believes that his new product will sell, as there is a sucker born every minute. Not that he put it quite that way, but he did say that wealthy people buy ridiculously complicated watches that they don't even know how to use because they like to show them off. Holy Mother of God, sure a watch plucked from a graveyard makes for some star attraction. What time is it? Don't know, can't work this thing, but let me tell you where my expensive and very fine timepiece came from.

Anyone keen on purchase had best make haste. Only 2,012 watches are being made. The number coincides with the year that marks the anniversary of the sinking. So strap on your watch and try not to think about the hundreds of immigrants in steerage, left to die so that the First Class passengers could make use of the limited number of lifeboats. And if you can afford the watch today, chances are, you could have afforded a First Class compartment in 1912. Something to boast of, is it?