A watch said to have belonged to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler has sold for $1.1m (£900,000) at an auction in the US.

The Huber timepiece, which sold to an anonymous bidder, shows a swastika and has the initials AH engraved on it.

Jewish leaders condemned the auction ahead of the sale at Alexander Historical Auctions in Maryland.

However the auction house – which has sold Nazi memorabilia in the past – told German media its aim was to preserve history.

Adolf Hitler led Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945, orchestrating the systematic murder of as many as 11 million people – six million of whom were killed because they were Jewish.

The product catalogue for the watch says it was possibly given as a birthday present to the fascist leader in 1933, the year he became Chancellor of Germany.

An assessment by the auction house reads that the watch was taken as a souvenir when some 30 French soldiers stormed the Berghof, Hitler’s mountain retreat in May, 1945.

It is then thought the timepiece was resold and passed down through several generations until now.

Despite the watch fetching over $1m it fell short of the auction house’s $2m to $4m estimate, Deutsche Welle reported.