By Andrew Hurst ZURICH, March 2 (Reuters) - Luxury wristwatches using traces of steel and coal taken from the shipwreck of the Titanic are to go on sale later this year, the timepiece's Swiss maker said on Friday. Parts of the watch's case will use an alloy, to be cast by the Titanic's builders Harland and Wolff, using a small piece of metal taken from the shipwreck and combined with new steel, said Yvan Arpa, CEO of Geneva watchmakers Romain Jerome. Public fascination with the 1912 disaster, in which more than 1,520 passengers and crew perished and about 700 survived, shows no sign of abating. Artefacts from the Titanic, including bronze plates from its lifeboats, were auctioned in June for tens of thousands of dollars in New York. But this appears to be the first time a luxury accessory has drawn on the shipwreck's enduring appeal. Promotional literature for the new watch, to be sold in steel, gold and platinum versions, shows a picture of a giant time-piece lying on the ocean floor alongside the broken-backed carcass of the Titanic. The watch's black dial-face will be dipped in lacquer paint whose ingredients include coal from the ill-fated liner which sank after hitting an iceberg on her maiden voyage from the English port of Southampton to New York. Asked if customers might be puzzled by the association of Swiss watchmaking, renowned for reliability, with a doomed ship which took hundreds of people to their death, Arpa replied: "It's something new and gives hope of life and perenniality." A basic steel watch, due to go on sale in May will cost 8,000 Swiss francs ($6,536) and a top-of-the-range model using an especially intricate movement will sell for 150,000 francs. Arpa said 2,012 versions of the watch would be made, a number coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's demise.
