I have been looking at a gold (not two tone) Rolex - and have never thought about this until just now as I have just always assumed they really were all real gold, but looking now are they really all gold (either rose or yellow)? - surely thats a lot of gold, i.e. the entire case and the bracelet if being solid gold would I imagine be much more expensive than the £30K or so for the watches that I am looking at - and that's the used inflated prices.

Are they really all solid gold or are they actually some other metal then plated?

 

18k (75%) solid gold case and bracelet. You pay a huge premium over the actual gold content in the watch/bracelet. There isn't that much gold relative to the price paid.

 

I agree. The gold content is a small fraction of 30k GBP, which is a pretty exorbitant price for a typical gold vintage Rolex BTW. Unless it is something particularly rare and desirable.

 

90% of the look at 1/100th the price.

 

I'm not qualified to comment on contemporary refs, but the older pieces in solid gold are an attractive proposition. But to be clear, they make no financial sense whatsoever - these are passion pieces, not a bullion play.

I'm drawn to YG pieces from the 1960's and 70's. They appear in interesting configurations with exotic dials and finishes and are not prone to pitting and corrosion - though you do see some very unique and characterful oxidation from the silver and copper content in the gold alloy. They're generally worn more gently than their SS counterparts too. These were hand-finished at the Genex factory (by a human!) and are all known to be ever so slightly different. Service polishing only accentuates this.

Different gold purity was used for different territories, different times, different refs (18k, 14k, 9k), and all should be suitably hallmarked on the case, caseback, and bracelet. Aftermarket (counterfeit) Oyster cases exist and are euphemistically referred to as Jewelers Cases. Curiously, I've only ever seen these coming out of Italy and only on the 1680/8 and 16808.

Solid gold is used on mid-cases, case backs, bezels, hands, dial furniture, crowns, spring bars (I think these are plated), bracelets, and clasps. Gold bracelets were usually sold as an "upgrade" to the default, leather. So you may not always see the end link marks under the lugs. I'm not a fan of vintage Oyster bracelets and in gold, they get stretchy quickly.

Compared to the current prices of SS pieces, I think the PM prices are fair value.

 

Let’s do the math. Gold is currently $57/gram. The weight of a gold Sub is about 160 g (I found mixed numbers online, so I am rounding up)., but only 75% of that is gold (at the most — I’m not even including weight of the movement, dial, etc). So, let’s say 120 g of solid gold to be generous. That’s $6840 of gold. The other $30k that Rolex charges for a gold Sub is just pure profit for them for you to have the luxury of wearing $7k worth of gold on your wrist.

If you want to invest in gold, buy bullion, not watches. The $37k spent on the watch would buy 649 grams of gold — for our US based members who don’t think in g and kg, that’s 1.4 pounds of the stuff.

 

maybe there are unaccounted lost of gold during the fabrication/ trimming from solid to crafted piece? probably still negligible amount of gold?

 

This is a bit of a stretch. It's extremely expensive to operate a precious metal foundry. Not to mention the direct costs of sourcing, transporting, and securing bullion for production; securely shipping, and distributing the finished product. Duty on imported gold, and a host of other expenses. I'm sure there is a good profit margin (%) on sold gold pieces but the jury is still out on whether the margin is higher in absolute or % terms compared to SS equivalent.

 

I’m pretty sure Rolex did not buy their gold today at the current prices, either. But, yeah, I overstated the profit margin. Let’s give them another $10k for all the stuff you mention. That’s still a hefty profit margin.

 

I agree it's hefty...

I think the interesting question is, whether the margin (%) or net profit on a PM piece is more or less than on a similar SS piece?

Clearly, one outsells the other. But you'd expect a bigger marketing push on the more profitable piece...

 

from a custom jeweler's perspective, you are definitely not getting your money's worth. several of the members have worked out the amount of gold you are actually getting, and factoring in the process to machine the parts, its still not worth it. Definitely more of a "because I can/could" kind of purchase to me.

 

What I have always found interesting is that the price difference between a gold 1680 or 1675-8 compared to a similar in age and condition steel 1680 or 1675 has been relatively narrow in recent years, and particularly when considering the delta at the time originally sold, and the relative numbers of each in the market, despite the fact that a lot people seem to love those gold watches.

 

What might the Mona Lisa be worth, considering the prices of canvas, oil paints, and wood? Only your grocer sells stuff by the pound.

 

Well, one could argue that buying a mechanical watch like a Speedmaster for $5-6k that isn't accurate when compared to your phone is worth it either. Luxury goods are seldom worth it when you take functionality into account, it's all about the emotional pull of the object. Gold watches just ramp up the emotion level.

 

one way to say about mechanical watch is old, outdated, clunky, inaccurate technology (typically from friends of mine, who listens to amazon streaming on bluetooth speaker, apple watch wearing, tesla driving to me who prefer vinyl on tube amp, mechanical watch, internal combustion engine cars)

but the other way to say (in their language) is the mechanical watches are powered by green fully renewable energy zero emission environmentally zero waste disposal, and also can run on their own in the wild out of cellular or power grid

and $$ for mechanical watch, if factored in for several decades is probably a lot cheaper than those every 3-year-throw-away time pieces. many mechanical timepieces are known to outlast the human lifespan especially the gold ones aren't they?

 

I love gold and have been eyeing one specific model but after reading more into I didn’t know the two tone watches were considered so 1980’s lmao, I still want it but the more I look into the more I realize they like Everrose more than the actual yellow gold. I’m sticking to my decision but still, haha didn’t know almost everyone was vocal about it, they either like it or they don’t.

It’s not about opinions changing my mind but I just wanted to see more pictures of it in the wild and had no choice but read the comments attached to them lol

 

all watches should have been made of gold ideally in the first place (white / yellow / other varients ) due to their metal properties

but the government’s export import rules and other monetary issues messed up things

there came watered down to 9carat gold, gold rolled, gold capped, gold electroplated, two tones etc

now it looks like steel is semi-precious metal in watch universe?

 

I have a bunch of gold watches. JLC, UG, Longines, Mido. I love em. To me Rolex only works in gold for Cellini and the Date Just/ President. The sports watches just don’t work for me in any thing other than SS.

 

I've always been a gold bug...love the look of it on a well made watch. I alternate by 1013 between a croc strap and an 18k Jubilee bracelet. Here in LA there have been armed robbery crews prowling the trendy shopping spots and restaurants and use guns and thuggery to strip people of high end watches. So for now (on rare occassions) I've parked my gold at home and been wearing steel. Now there are examples where steel Rolexes of the same size and model (or closely related) are fetching much higher prices than their gold relatives. The 1016 Explorer and the 1013 gold OP is one example. Yellow gold is still trying to live down the 70's and 80's Elvis image. At the same time, the 14k gold Rolexes can be close to or even with the 18k prices. All the gold watches shown in this thread are worthy of owning. And I do like the gold GMTs and Subs...especially on high quality leather straps. Because of the 38 to 40mm size of the heads, often a gold bracelet feels like over kill. The same is often true with Day-Dates. The good thing with a gold Rolex, in a SHTF situation, it can buy your way out of some bad trouble.

 

An interesting perspective on this also is the fact that I’m sure many here own Smartwatches as well, i frequent those message boards a lot and you do find the usual one who hates mechanical watches in favor of digital calling mechanical watches a gigantic waste of money.

I just basically pointed out the fact that the Apple Watch Edition in 18k yellow gold that retailed for 17k is completely useless nowadays, it’s not supported by apple and it’s just a paperweight made out of gold, minimum you could ask like 10-11k for the nostalgic crowd. I mean sure some people got their use of it but spending money in technology devices that can be rendered useless in years is not worth it for me I guess, Imagine spending 1,200 for a high end ceramic Apple Watch or hermes, and only get a trade in value of 350 usd no matter what.