Sell a gold watch or pocket watch

Before anything else: is this worth more as a watch?

You can look for most of this yourself from the outside before you post anything.

• A maker's name on the dial or the case. It matters whether or not the watch runs.
• A screw-down case back, with small notches round its edge, which often means a better watch. Look, but do not try to open it or wind the watch.
• Anything unusual about the dial, such as a calendar window, a second small dial, or an enamel face rather than a printed one.

None of that changes the gold, but all of it can change what the watch is worth. A watch kept whole can still be sold for its gold later; a melted one cannot be put back together. If a watch specialist, an auction house or a dealer may pay more, we tell you before any offer, and the watch is posted back free whether or not you sell us anything else.

Reading the marks inside the case back

The marks are almost always inside the case back, and on a hunter pocket watch there is often a second set inside the front lid, which opens by hand. Do not prise or unscrew a case back at home: leave it shut and photograph the outside and the dial instead. A back that clicks shut, prised with a kitchen knife, scratches the case and can bend the lip or damage the movement.

What a watch case mark tells you

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A solid gold watch case is thin sheet metal shaped into a shell, and on a small wristwatch there is often surprisingly little of it. Much of the weight in the hand is the movement, the glass and any steel back. The UK hallmarks guide shows each mark at size.

Rolled gold, gold-filled and the watches that only look gold

Many yellow twentieth-century watches are rolled gold or gold-filled. The gold layer is real, thicker than plating and bonded to the metal underneath, which is why these cases can look perfect after eighty years. There is still far too little of it to recover, so there is no metal in them for us to buy.

• Look at the wear points: the edge of the case, the lugs where the strap sits, the raised bit above the winder. On a filled case these rub through to pink or grey.
• Look for a stamp that names the thickness, such as “20 microns” or “10 micron plated”. A solid case has no layer thickness to state.
• Look at the weight for the size. A gold-filled case is mostly brass and feels light for what it is.
• Hollow bracelet links show up the same way: they look substantial and weigh very little.
• A filled case by a known maker may still be worth more as a watch than a plain solid gold case. A watch that is not gold can still be worth something.

A surface test can be fooled by a filled case, because the surface is gold, so the marks and the weight for size come first. The methods used for each case are listed on the offer. An acid touchstone test is used only if you have agreed to it in writing. Our guide to plated, rolled gold, gold-filled and vermeil compares the four.

The parts of a watch that are not bought as metal

• The movement. Mostly steel and brass; on modern watches the jewels are synthetic ruby, and some fine or early movements have small gold parts, which stay with the movement. Its weight is estimated and left out, and it stays in the case until you have accepted.
• The glass, dial and hands. Dials are usually silvered brass or enamel fired onto copper; a few are gold, and those are noted. They stay with the movement.
• Steel case parts. A stainless back screwed onto a gold-fronted case is very common, and the two are told apart before anything is decided.
• The bracelet. Bought only where it proves to be solid gold, and listed separately from the case, because the two are often different metals.
• Leather, fabric and rubber straps. Take them off if it is easy; leave them on if it is not.

Movements have value to repairers, so your list includes each one and you decide what happens to it. A watch flagged as possibly worth more whole is never separated from its movement at all, and no movement leaves its case before you have accepted an offer. If you want the movement, dial and hands back, say so when you send the parcel or when you accept, and they are posted back to you at our cost.

Send the whole watch box

Watch boxes are where the odd things collect: a broken wristwatch, a pocket watch with no glass, two Albert chains (pocket-watch chains), a fob, a handful of spare links, a strap buckle, a watch key. The chains and links are often the solid gold in the box, while the watch everybody assumed was gold turns out to be filled. Photograph any watch with a name on it first; the rest can go in as it is. Scrap gold jewellery covers the chains, and selling gold by post the rest of the gold in the box.

Pack watches so glass cannot break against metal. A wristwatch wrapped on its own in a piece of kitchen paper, inside a small bag, is enough. If a pocket watch has a loose bezel or a cracked crystal, wrap it and say so rather than trying to mend it, because broken glass scratches everything else in the parcel. Posting safely and cover covers the rest of the packing.

For anything with a name you recognise, start with photographs, not the post. Photograph the dial and the case back, and the inside of the back only if it is already open, then send the pictures on WhatsApp to 07369 296063, or ring or text that number if you do not use WhatsApp. That costs nothing and answers the question that matters most. If this came to you with a house or an estate, inherited jewellery and house clearance gold and silver cover sending a mixed lot in one go.

What happens to a watch when it arrives

1. Recorded as it arrivedEvery watch is photographed whole, with its strap, box and papers if they came with it, before anything is opened.
2. Looked at as a watchThe maker, dial, case style and condition are noted; the watch is not wound. Anything that may be worth more as a watch is set aside, and we tell you before any offer that it may be worth more to a watch specialist, an auction house or a dealer, so you can take it there.
3. Case marks readWhere it can be done without marking the case, the back is opened with a proper case tool so that the marks inside can be read under magnification and photographed; if that could cause damage, it stays shut and you are asked first. The case is checked where marks are absent or unclear. Nothing comes out of the case, and the back goes back on.
4. Case and bracelet treated separatelyEach is identified on its own, because a solid case on a plated bracelet is common, and occasionally it is the other way round.
5. Listed, then one offerYou see what arrived, what it is, and what is being bought. Nothing is taken apart until you have accepted; offers, returns and payment sets out each answer you can give.

A watch never goes straight onto the scales. Weight is the last question about a watch, because starting there would skip the part where a chronograph is recognised as a chronograph. How it works covers the stages around this one.

What we buy, and what we leave out

Stopped before anything is treated as scrap

• A watch by a known maker, running or not, is flagged before any offer so you can take it to a watch specialist, an auction house or a dealer
• Pocket watches with extra features such as a stopwatch or calendar, enamel dials, finely decorated cases or early English movements may interest specialists, and we say so
• A watch with its original box, guarantee and receipts is often worth noticeably more as a set
• Fob seals with carved stones, and Albert chains with their original fobs and bars, are set aside as possible collector pieces
• Military, railway and presentation watches with an inscription are flagged, because their history may interest collectors
• A case that cannot be opened without risk of damage is left shut until you have said to go on