If you've got between $7,800 and $173,100 to spare and fancy owning a piece of history, Geneva watchmaker Romain Jerome has just the thing for you: a watch incorporating steel and coal from the Titanic.

Watches in the "Titanic-DNA" collection are made from gold, platinum and steel, the latter coming from a 1.5 kg piece of the hull acquired by Romain Jerome from an unnamed seller*. The plate has been authenticated by Titanic's builder Harland and Wolff and is alloyed with steel "being used in a Harland and Wolff replica of the vessel", Reuters explains.

Romain Jerome chief exec Yvan Arpa reckons the Titanic-DNA timepieces will appeal to "collectors and garrulous luxury goods buyers". He said: "So many rich people buy incredibly complicated watches without understanding how they work, because they want a story to tell. To them we offer a story."

Getting up a full head of steam, Arpa continued: "The combination of new and old materials infused the watches with a sense of renewal, instead of representing a reminder of the 1,500 passengers who drowned when the oceanliner met her tragic end off the coast of Newfoundland". He concluded: "It is a message of hope, of life stronger than death, of rebirth."

Romain Jerome says it will make 2,012 Titanic-DNA watches to commemorate the 2012 centenary of the Titanic's demise. ®

Bootnote

*The plate was recovered in 1991, Reuters notes, before the Titanic site was protected to prevent further exploitation.

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