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Horological Meandering

With all respect

 

Different gold alloys have vastly different properties.  The usual material for the escapement spring that is part of a detente-escapement, which is deformed once per complete oscillation, is a gold alloy, although I don't know the karat.  The contact wires of the original Hamilton electric movement, which had to provide constant contact to a moving object, and occasionally deliver some electrons, were sometimes gold.  My experience is that only the gold ones still work.

I would also point out that solid gold hands, even if they are on brass pipes, would be resistant to tarnish in a way that would be harder to achieve with gold plated on nickel on steel.

That all said, I have grown to distrust almost all promotional materials from almost all watch companies, so if they actually use solid gold hands would stay in doubt in my mind.
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Why massive gold chronograph hands are impossible ...

 
By: Marcus Hanke : December 25th, 2008-11:49
... sometimes I read statements like "all hands are made from solid gold", being a statement of quality and exclusivity. Normally, a watch's hands are made from steel, which is either heat-blued, lacquered or coated with another metal, mostly rhodium or g... 

With all respect

 
By: aaronm : December 25th, 2008-12:37
Different gold alloys have vastly different properties. The usual material for the escapement spring that is part of a detente-escapement, which is deformed once per complete oscillation, is a gold alloy, although I don't know the karat. The contact wires... 

When "solid gold" is stated, I normally expect 24k, 18k at least ...

 
By: Marcus Hanke : December 25th, 2008-12:52
... but an alloy containing less than 75% gold is no "solid" or "massive" gold in my opinion. The protection from tarnishing, or oxidation for me is no profound argument for the use of solid gold hands. A well-executed gold-plating must not leave any gaps... 

Ahh, but legally

 
By: aaronm : December 25th, 2008-13:08
There is, to my knowledge, no definition of "solid" or "massive". Gold, in the US, must only be 10k or more, 9k in the UK. So calling a 0.2 gram, 12k hand "massive solid gold" is legal, and yet also deceptive, so in my mind exactly what I'd expect. I also...