At
1-800-4CLOCKS, we have been absolutely besieged by Customers who want to sell items they own which contain solid gold in it’s different forms, e.g.
14 gold, 18k gold, etc.
The television advertising Cash4Gold has only accelerated this trend. By the way, our personal view is one that sending away one’s gold to an entity without knowing its true value, and then getting a check, is a recipe for being taken advantage of. But who are we to say, I suppose.
In contrast to the opinion of many clocks owners, clocks with Solid 14 Gold are extraordinarily rare. Bronze and brass were the favored materials, and gave the same look and color.
The place where there is real gold lurking out there stored in drawers or long-forgotten closet stashes, is in pocket watches. Many pocket watches are made with solid 14k or solid 18k gold. But they can be hard to spot if one is not an expert, and still, the vast majority of even gold colored antique pocket watch cases are gold-filled vs. gold.
We always invite our customers to arrange a meeting if they have any collections of watches, pocket watches or vintage wrist watches, that they might be interested in selling for a fair price.
Here below are 2 diagrams which include INCREDIBLY USEFUL information when trying to both describe your pocket watch, and to be able to describe your watch most effectively.
US Made Watch Sizes Conversion Chart:
Watch Size Translations
(Diameter of the movement)
Size
Inches
Millimeters
20
1 5/6
46.56
19
1 4/5
45.72
18
1 23/30
44.86
17
1 11/15
44.02
16
1 7/10
43.18
15
1 2/3
42.32
14
1 19/30
41.48
13
1 3/5
40.64
12
1 17/30
39.78
11
1 8/15
38.94
10
1 1/2
38.10
9
1 7/15
37.24
8
1 13/30
36.40
7
1 2/5
35.56
6
1 11/30
34.70
5
1 1/3
33.86
4
1 3/10
33.02
3
1 4/15
32.16
2
1 7/30
31.32
1
1 1/5
30.48
0
1 1/6
29.62
2/0
1 2/15
28.78
3/0
1 1/10
27.94
4/0
1 1/15
27.08
5/0
1 1/30
26.24
6/0
1
25.40
This summary of American Pocket Watch sizes will be very useful in knowing which model you own, and well as to describing it to prospective buyers or collectors, or simply for your own use.
Also shown below are the gold, diamond and jewelry markings that are so critical in understanding the hidden (or possible way overstated) value of various gems and jewelry, including diamonds, and pocket watches.
By the way, if you do have or come across a solid 14k or solid 18k
grandfather clock, please let us know!
DIAMOND COLOR SCALE
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Colorless
Near
Colorless
Faint Yellow
Very Light Yellow
Light Yellow
DIAMOND CLARITY SCALE
FL
IF
VVS
1
VVS
2
VS
1
VS
2
SI
1
SI
2
I
1
I
2
I
3
Flawless-
Internally Flawless
Very Very Slightly
Imperfect
Very Slightly
Imperfect
Slightly Imperfect
Imperfect
Gold Jewelry Markings:
Percentage Of Gold
North American Marking
European Numerical Marking
British Marking
37.5%
9k or 9kt
375
9ct or 9kt
41.6%
10k or 10kt
416 or 417
10ct or 10kt
58.5%
14k or 14 kt
585
14ct or 14kt
75 %
18k or 18kt
750
18ct or 18kt
91.6
22k or 22kt
916 or 917
22ct or 22kt
99.9%
24k or 24kt
999
24ct or 24kt