🥇 BANNER 18 k gold pocket watch. !

[Acojoe]

Have not posted in a while, frankly I have had nothing great to post, until today. When out with Cheffer today for three hours and found this 18 K gold pocket watch. Could not believe it when it came out of the ground. Looked it up it’s from around mid 1800. Thanks for your spot Cheffer.

 

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[MetalArchSC]

Banner! Awesome find.

 

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[trdking]

Im Sure the movement is toast but pictures would be appreciated? Gold watches are rare then there are Hens teeth which this one is. A Vacheron! One of the highest end pocket watches of the day and dropped by a wealthy person for sure. If the case is restorable it still has value beyond the gold weight Banner all day

 

[xcopperstax]

Wow that is a seriously nice find! Must have been a tough day to lose that one! How does the inside look? Congrats!

 

[Acojoe]

Unfortunately the inside is all toasted and corroded in the covers of all falling off the hinges rusted out

 

[trdking]

Unfortunately the inside is all toasted and corroded in the covers of all falling off the hinges rusted out

The pins on the covers can be replaced. This is a good money case! I notice the bow is missing. Id go back to the spot and deep search for it. Probably how he lost it

 

[Gene Mean]

Congrats on the amazing find! That's a nice looking display piece. Get back out there!

 

[1637]

banner for sure.

 

[Tnmountains]

18k very nice. Enjoy seeing that beautiful hand engraving inside it. Congratulations !

(The precious metal rose as much as 3.7 percent to $1,650.50 an ounce today....)

 

[CCDAMEEK]

Wow! Awesome find! I have found 2 partial pocket watch cases this winter, and Three main internal plates, plus a BUNCH of the misc, gears and stuff. Both partial cases of mine have been silver plated brass! What a find! Congratulations!!

 

[The Dirt Pirate]

Awesome.

 

[mindcrime1988]

I love finding pocket watches. Granted I've only found 2 of them but to find one in gold? That's very nice indeed. Congrats.

 

[cheffer]

So glad to see my glove (and Joe's gold pocket watch ) up on the banner. I was about 20 feet away when he found it, took the first snapshot of it knowing full well it was old gold:



Congratulations Joe, high praise indeed on this site which is one of the best forums in my opinion. Hope it gets you to post here more often!

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Congratulations on your gold watch find achieving your first BANNER Joe!

I'd trade you all of the complete brass pocket watches I've found for just one piece of yours.

Dave

 

[Joe-Dirt]

WOW!!

 

[deepseeker3]

If these things could only talk.... OK, so give it up - private property, park, water??

 

[Milspec6]

Really cool, those old key winders were really neat. I didn't blow up the picturs to see, but it is important to note that many of the gold cases are what is called "gold filled" which are layers of gold over the copper. Normally, the plated watches will state a wear-through warranty on it like 10 years or 25 years which equates to the thickness of the gold plating. All i see is the 18k marking as well as the jewelers marks so it good be a true 18k gold case. The problem is that many companies played it a little loose with their descriptions and you would sometimes find markings that say "18k gold" , but there will also be a mark indicating that it is a 30 year plating instead of actual solid gold. There looks to be a copper look to the badly worn areas which makes me wonder if it is plated.

It can become quite confusing as a lot of the watches and cases were not manufactured together. You would go to the jeweler to buy the movement and then select a case from other manufactureres to pair with it. You really need to research the markings stamped on the case to find out.

As for restoring one...forget about it is my advice. There are very few people still skilled in repairing old pocket watches so the repair price is VERY high. Just to get a watch (in great condition) cleaned and timed will cost you close to $300. A full restoration would likely be in the thousands.

I hope I didn't just become the wet blanket here, that is a really cool find and it very well might be a true 18K gold watch. It was a very expensive watch in its day, and if you remove the movement, you might even find that the gears are also made of gold.

 

[Acojoe]

Thank you all for the votes for banner, it an honor. Deepseeker3. It was open public land.

 

[burlbark]

Really cool, those old key winders were really neat. I didn't blow up the picturs to see, but it is important to note that many of the gold cases are what is called "gold filled" which are layers of gold over the copper. Normally, the plated watches will state a wear-through warranty on it like 10 years or 25 years which equates to the thickness of the gold plating. All i see is the 18k marking as well as the jewelers marks so it good be a true 18k gold case. The problem is that many companies played it a little loose with their descriptions and you would sometimes find markings that say "18k gold" , but there will also be a mark indicating that it is a 30 year plating instead of actual solid gold. There looks to be a copper look to the badly worn areas which makes me wonder if it is plated.

It can become quite confusing as a lot of the watches and cases were not manufactured together. You would go to the jeweler to buy the movement and then select a case from other manufactureres to pair with it. You really need to research the markings stamped on the case to find out.

As for restoring one...forget about it is my advice. There are very few people still skilled in repairing old pocket watches so the repair price is VERY high. Just to get a watch (in great condition) cleaned and timed will cost you close to $300. A full restoration would likely be in the thousands.

I hope I didn't just become the wet blanket here, that is a really cool find and it very well might be a true 18K gold watch. It was a very expensive watch in its day, and if you remove the movement, you might even find that the gears are also made of gold.

You obviously didnt care to research this watch at all and instead wanted to share your knowledge of gold filled watches.

Wet blanket you are not..... Your opinion is incorrect. The manufacturer of the watch is already known.

Glorious find it is.

 

[CMDiamonddawg]

BIG Congrats !

CMD

 

[trdking]

Really cool, those old key winders were really neat. I didn't blow up the picturs to see, but it is important to note that many of the gold cases are what is called "gold filled" which are layers of gold over the copper. Normally, the plated watches will state a wear-through warranty on it like 10 years or 25 years which equates to the thickness of the gold plating. All i see is the 18k marking as well as the jewelers marks so it good be a true 18k gold case. The problem is that many companies played it a little loose with their descriptions and you would sometimes find markings that say "18k gold" , but there will also be a mark indicating that it is a 30 year plating instead of actual solid gold. There looks to be a copper look to the badly worn areas which makes me wonder if it is plated.

It can become quite confusing as a lot of the watches and cases were not manufactured together. You would go to the jeweler to buy the movement and then select a case from other manufactureres to pair with it. You really need to research the markings stamped on the case to find out.

As for restoring one...forget about it is my advice. There are very few people still skilled in repairing old pocket watches so the repair price is VERY high. Just to get a watch (in great condition) cleaned and timed will cost you close to $300. A full restoration would likely be in the thousands.

I hope I didn't just become the wet blanket here, that is a really cool find and it very well might be a true 18K gold watch. It was a very expensive watch in its day, and if you remove the movement, you might even find that the gears are also made of gold.

If you had "blown up the pictures to see" You having all of that knowledge of Watch cases would have known immediately that this is a solid 18K gold 1860's era Vacheron key wind key set.But you did not bother to look. Congrats on the banner!! Well deserved