Ever wondered if your gold pocket watch was solid gold or gold filled. Which one do you think would be more valuable. Well one of them would probably be considered a ancient gold pocket watch for years to come and the other would just be well just a gold pocket watch. Here are a few tips to help you recognize if your pocket watch is solid gold or gold filled. Now a reputable jeweler is always another source to help you with the identification process but if you are a do it yourself type of someone these tips will get you headed in the right direction.
Now most commonly if a pocket watch was marked solid gold it would be that, but some of the early American watchmakers would sell these watches as something they were not after all how would you know. They would mark them as 14 karat or 18 karat gold watches when in reality they were gold filled watches. Now a real gold watch would have he words mass assembly etched on the watch which was a type of certification of its authenticity.
Watches
Our American watchmakers used the words mass assembly to certify their watches. Our counterparts in Europe in their manufacturing process of solid gold watches used a different system. They weighed the gold article of each watch manufactured and stamped them in decimals not ounces. Europe used the metric ideas then and still do today as their ideas of measurement. The gold article of a 24 karat watch was 100%. All other solid gold watches were based off this appropriate so the 18 karat watch had 75% gold article and the 14 karat watch had 58% gold content. Of policy as the karat weight decreased so did the gold content.
There are your tips that I hope you find fun and helpful. Having whether watch is like keeping a piece of history but the solid gold pocket watch has a little more of that history.
Gold Pocket Watches - Solid Gold Or Gold Filled
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