R17.8 Crowns - solid or plated gold?

I think there were very few solid gold crowns made for any pre-1980’s Omega watch. Maybe for some of the early and very top of the line Automatic watches, like the Centenary or Chronometre lines.

The reason for this is that gold (especially 18K) is a relatively soft metal. The crown on a manual wind watch is an everyday touch point. A solid gold crown would wear out very quickly if you needed to wind it each morning.

With the automatic watches, the object at the time was to not touch the crown. If worn every day, you might reset the watch once a week or even once a month under normal use. Much less wear on the crown.

Hope this helps,
gatorcpa