How to tell different type of Gold for Watch?

When a Colleague asked me Will Rolex gold colour watch will fade its colour and how thick the gold is plated for me. I think I need to tell and explain the various terms of gold in use for watch. Rolled Gold Rolled gold is a very thin sheet of gold that is laminated to a lesser metal (usually brass). The two layers of metal are heated under pressure to fuse them together. The sheet is them rolled into a very thin sheet and then used to make watch Watch made by rolled gold wear well over time. It is now almost replaced by gold Plated process nowadays. Rolled gold pieces are marked rolled gold plate, R.G.P., Gold Plated Gold plating is a method of depositing a thin layer of gold onto the surface of another metal, most often copper or silver (to make silver-gilt), by chemical or electrochemical means. Watch in the 60-80’s had a thickness of Gold plating such as 20-40 microns Nowadays the Gold colour watch made by plating can be just as thin as 3-5 microns, This thin gold layer will be wearing off in time. Some old watch or pocket watch engraved with say gold for 20 years means that they can be last for 20 years, just to tell you they are made thicker only. They are not solid gold watch 9, 14 and 18 Carat Gold While pure gold is yellow in color, gold can also appear to have other colors. These colors are generally obtained by alloying gold with other elements in various proportions. For example, alloys which are mixed 14 parts gold to 10 parts alloy create 14-carat gold, 18 parts gold to 6 parts alloy creates 18 carat, and so on. This is often expressed as the result of the ratio, ie: 14/24 equals 0.585 (rounded off), and 18/24 is 0.750. Carat is normally expressed in Ct of K. Nowadays, Solid Gold watch is almost found to be 18 Ct rare to see 14 Ct. 14 Ct is only found on ring and jewelery, but no watch! Carat As a measure of purity, one carat is purity by mass The most common carats used for gold in bullion, watch and jewelery making and by goldsmiths are: 24 carat (millesimal fineness 999) 22 carat (millesimal fineness 916) 20 carat (millesimal fineness 833) 18 carat (millesimal fineness 750) 15 carat (millesimal fineness 625) 14 carat (millesimal fineness 585) 10 carat (millesimal fineness 417) 9 carat (millesimal fineness 375) 8 carat (millesimal fineness 333) 1 carat (millesimal fineness 042) Some watch maker tends to engrave 18K instead of 18 Carat, in fact they bear the same meaning.

Vermeil Vermeil, a French word which came into use in the English language, mostly in America, in the 19th century as an alternative for the usual term silver-gilt, is a combination of sterling silver, gold, and other precious metals. It is commonly used as a component in jewelry. A typical example is sterling silver coated with 14 carat (57.5%) gold. To be considered vermeil, the gold must be at least 10 carat (42%) and be at least 2.5 micrometres thick. In the US, sterling silver covered with a base metal (such as nickel) and plated with gold cannot be sold as vermeil without disclosing that it contains base metal. Cartier used to produce a lot of Vermeil Santos Watch as some of the lower line of watches. White Gold and Platinum In Chinese Hong Kong, White Gold and Platinum bears the same Cantonese Pronunciations, White gold is an alloy of gold and at least one white metal, usually nickel or palladium. Like yellow gold, the purity of white gold is given in carats. Platinum is another type precious metal which is used to be more expensive than White gold. White gold's properties vary depending on the metals and proportions used. As a result, white gold alloys can be used for different purposes; while a nickel alloy is hard and strong, and therefore good for rings and pins, gold-palladium alloys are soft, pliable and good for white gold gemstone settings, sometimes with other metals like copper, silver, and platinum for weight and durability, although this often requires specialized goldsmiths. Almost all white gold jewelry is rhodium-plated since gold alloyed with palladium or nickel never comes out true white, but tinted brown, therefore requiring a thin layer of rhodium to mask the tinted shade and make it true white.

Colour of Gold Rose gold is a gold and copper alloy widely used for specialized watch due to its reddish color. It is also known as pink gold and red gold. As it was popular in Russia at the beginning of the nineteenth century, it is also known as Russian gold, although this term has become somewhat rare. With different additive and other element, we can produce many types of colour of Gold, Black, Purple, Grey, Pink or Rose Gold.

Gold Filled Gold-filled jewelry aka "Rolled Gold" or "Rolled Gold Plate" is composed of a solid layer of gold bonded with heat and pressure to a base metal such as brass. Some high quality gold-filled pieces have the look, luster, and beauty of 14 karat (58%) gold. I Hallmark A hallmark is an official mark or series of marks struck on items made of precious metals — platinum, gold, silver and in some nations. Hallmarks can only be found on Solid Gold Watch. In my understanding, Gold plated watch is no a gold watch, gold watch means solid gold ( the whole piece of watch was made form a big piece of Solid Gold Rolex, Patek Phillippe seem did no produce any gold plated watch at all. Correct me if I am not correct! What material I should buy for Watch? In normal selling price as we can see, a Stainless steel watch may sell at $1,000. Watch of the same type made with Solid 18K gold may be selling at $3,000 And $5,000 for Pink Gold or Rose Gold and $8,000 for 18K Platinum. The price can vary 3-10 times with difference of metal to make the case with the same Watch engine! So as a collector, if your budget can allow, buy Solid Platinum watch and Pink Gold Watch is the best in investment as they usually produces less! Of you want to collect the watch because of the engine is good, then why not just go for the stainless steel version!?

HK Snob