Gold Pocket Watches

Can you pull off an antique gold pocket watch? Of course you can. An Elgin gold pocket watch or a similar timepiece designed by Waltham can be a refreshing alternative to a wristwatch.

By the 1930s, wristwatches comprised the bulk of watch manufacturing in America, superseding the pocket watch. Suddenly, if you wanted to know the time, you merely glanced at your wrist. But given their vintage charm and our general appetite for good design, pocket watches are a piece of statement-making jewelry and today can prove complementary to your formal attire in a manner that is stylish and unconventional.

The earliest pocket watches were luxury items, and, owing to cost, they weren’t commonplace until the 19th century. Artfully crafted pocket watches were a symbol of wealth, and manufacturers such as Vacheron Constantin and Patek Philippe became known for theirs. Today, they’re among the most sought after by collectors and enthusiasts. 

Gold, especially yellow gold, with its rich patina and ancient pedigree going back thousands of years, is the steady standby. Yellow gold pocket watches created by the likes of Piaget and Tiffany & Co. are made with the well-mannered metal of choice, and it’s a museum-worthy metal, too: A 14-karat yellow gold pocket watch designed by the Illinois Watch Co. during the 1870s was recently acquired by the National Museum of American History.

Gold is the feel-good metal, the serotonin of jewelry. Any discussion of this lustrous metal comes down to a basic truth: Gold is elementary, my dear. Gold jewelry that couples the mystique of the metal with superb design and craftsmanship achieves the status of an enduring classic.

The abbreviation for karat is K, as in 24K gold. Which, if you didn’t know, is pure gold or 100% gold or fine gold. Pure gold is too soft to work with and therefore it needs to be alloyed with other metals to make it harder and suitable for wear.

A quick tip, an 18K gold pocket watch is 75 percent gold mixed with 25 percent of other metals like copper or silver, etc. Also, most gold jewelry is stamped with the 18K or, even, 750 or 0.75 in recognition of the percentage of gold. Most jewelers today in the U.S. work with either 14K or 18K gold, unless they specify that their jewelry is made of high-karat gold like 20K or 22K. 

Many luxury houses have given us some of our most treasured and lasting examples of gold jewelry over the years — find antique and vintage gold pocket watches for sale on 1stDibs.