Gold Watch and gold Rolex Watch

Picture on Rolex Catalogue taken By Samsung II Note II

Gold Watch

It is common for us to look at a device as “Simple” as a gold watch and think you know, this gold watch is great and everything, but all it does is tell time – why on Earth is it worth so much? This is an interesting question to ask on Watch made of gold!

Of course, that’s usually a question reserved for those who aren’t familiar with watches, gold, or the watch-making process. There are many more elements that go into making a gold watch besides simply “gold”. The knowledge of watchmaking has developed for a long time over the hundreds of years, initially, watches were made only in gold as watch in the 17th Century is only be used by Royal family, kinks and Business men, very Seldom watch is found made of Stainless steel. Since then Watches have been made with many other material except gold, Platinum until recent decade, using new materials like Carbon composite, Titanium, Ceramic, etc…and it will continue to develop with new technologies and new manufacturing process available.

Gold watch means 18KT solid gold watch, nowadays it is rare to use 14K or even 9K to make watches. Gold watch means here whole block of watch case, watch strap are entirely gold. As many people mix up solid gold and Gold plated watch…. Rolex Does not produce any gold plated watches, a few models of Date just in the 60s had been found with Rolled gold, with much thicker layer of gold about 20-45 microns in small numbers.

In the 80’s Rolex was still subcontracting the strap to Taiwan and HK factories for the strap. And after some time in 1985 (If Someone can confirm me exactly when would be appreciated) Rolex makes the Watch Strap and cases 100% in Rolex Factory Switzerland.

First things first: Gold?

Normally the gold Rolex is usually min 3-4 times more expensive that the similar watch with stainless steel. And Platinum watch is also more 1.6 to 2.5 times more expensive than gold Watch. With Some exception like Rolex Day Date in Stainless steel; it is very rare and we estimate only 7 pieces made as Prototype.

Why gold?

When looking at gold watches, it might be helpful to look at gold itself – just as a commodity. Gold is one of the world’s most precious metals, a relatively rare commodity that is rarer than silver but more common than platinum. Gold is an element on the periodic table, suggests it is one of the most inert element. It is not readily to react with Oxygen to Oxidation like Copper, Bronze, Iron or Silver.

Gold is highly valuable for a number of reasons, but one of them is that gold is a highly malleable, shape-able substance. It works well in metal working, being melted down and formed to fit casings and different molds. It can also be beaten down into the ultra-thin gold leaf that is used for gilding basic structures, like structures made from wood. I was told that 1 kilogram of 24K gold can be beaten down into thin layer of gold that even cover the whole World.

Not only is gold relatively easy to work with, it is a highly durable metal that is difficult to break. This is where gold becomes an especially apt choice for the metal used in a watch. Because of gold’s durability, it can greatly enhance the worth of any watch without sacrificing any of the watch’s strength. Gold can also be fashioned into pink, yellow, and white colors for a variety of “styles” to the gold watch.


Rolex Gold and Gold Case

How is gold used in a watch? After being dug out of the ground – gold can be found in nugget form, or in lesser amounts alloyed with other metals – metal workers will melt down gold and separate it from other metals and purities. From here, gold can be transferred and melted down further to the exact shapes needed to construct a gold watch. Rolex has its own foundry to melt gold and make what possible case Design requires. It has 5 tons of Stamping Machine to punch through solid block of gold and tool 162 operations step to make one gold Solid Gold Rolex Case. For Platinum, due to the toughness of Platinum properties, Rolex has to change tools for every three cases, but for Yellow Gold Case, one set of tool can handle ten cases.

I was told that half of the gold in Switzerland was used to make Rolex! Is that an astonishing figure!?
A Rolex Day Date 36mm with full extended length of gold president strap is normally weighs about 140 grams, about 3.8 tales.
Next time when you buy Rolex, can you consider the Gold version?

HK Snob