Hiroshima Blast Survivor Watch Auctioned For More Than $31,000 In Boston

At an auction, a watch that was melted during the blast of Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, was bought for more than $31,000. According to Boston-based RR Auction, the watch is frozen in time at the exact moment of an atomic bomb detonation over the Japanese city, which occurred at 8:15 a.m. during the final days of World War ll. In the auction that concluded on Thursday, $31,113 was the winning bid.

Survivor watch of Hiroshima blast

The artifact provides a window into the massive devastation caused by the first atomic bomb to explode over a city and was found among the ruins of Hiroshima. According to the auction house, the small brass-tone watch was auctioned off with other historically significant items. It is a rare survivor from the blast zone. The watch’s hands stay stopped at 8:15 a.m., the time the B-29 Enola Gay dropped the “Little Boy” atomic bomb, despite the blast clouding the crystal.

Watch records the exact time of the blast

The watch was recovered from the wreckage of the city by a British soldier who was tasked with assessing the needs for post-conflict reconstruction at the Prefectural Promotion Hall in Hiroshima and providing emergency supplies, according to the auction house and the item’s consignor.

Bobby Livingston, executive vice president of RR Auction, stated, “We sincerely hope that this museum-quality piece will stand as a poignant educational symbol, serving to not only remind us of the tolls of war but also to underscore the profound, destructive capabilities that humanity must strive to avoid.” “For example, this wristwatch records the precise moment when history was irrevocably altered.”

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Other items sold in the auction

A signed copy of the Little Red Book by the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong, which brought in $250,000, a signed check from George Washington, one of only two known presidential signatures ever sold, for $135,473, and Buzz Aldrin’s Apollo 11 Lunar Module Prep Checklist, which brought in $76,533, were among the other items up for auction, according to RR Auction.