Hello,
I have a question about value. I've noticed many Bulova movements for sale at online auction (almost more than whole watches). I was wondering if folks are buying the cases for gold content and selling the movements.
Someday I'd like to have a kiln or proper torch... maybe I should buy old watches that don't appear to be gold... unless you open it up and notice it's 14K rolled gold. I'm sure there are saavy buyers but it does sound like fun.
Ok, so how much gold could really be in there? Is it complicated to separate the metals?
Obviously, a solid gold watch is just that but.. I have a silver colored watch that says 14K rolled gold and a gold watch that says 10K plate.
Historically I would consider the gold value to be insignificant but with the current price above $55 per gram, the amount of gold to make it 'worthwhile' is getting smaller.
If this question seems inappropriate for the site, feel free to admin/delete it. This is my second post on mybulova.com and I don't know if you guys are nice or not yet. :)
Electroplated watches have the least gold content followed by Gold plated, Rolled Gold plated, and finally the Gold filled have the most.
If you seperated and refined the gold found in a average Gold filled wrist watch case, it would be less than one 50th of a Gram of pure 24K gold.
You would be wasting your time, and money trying to strike it rich melting watch cases unless you plan on buying thousands of them for the Gold value, they are worth more as a whole watch than the scrap unless Gold hits $10,000 a ounce...
And we are nice here ; D
10K is approx .40 solid gold, 14K is .585
Gold filled means the gold content must (by law) be equal to 1/20 th the wieght of the case. So a 10 gram case is 10/20= .5 grams , then multiply by .585 and you's get .2925 grams.
At $1670 per troy oz, that's 53.70 per gram, multipied by .2925 that's $15.70
Rolled gold plate is 1/40 the case weight or basically half of the above and electroplate isn't even worth mentioning.
Unless your refining on a very large scale, forget it, Ticker was bang on when he said you'll waste your time and money. Refining is for those who already know what they are doing, and have the equipement to to it right. As they say on TV " Don't try this at home".
The broken watch will sell for double for parts value alone and guys like me want the whole watch for restoration.