Sell a gold watch or pocket watch

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

What gets looked for is straightforward, and you can look for it yourself before you post anything.

• A name on the dial or engraved on the movement.
• A second hand that moves, or a balance wheel that swings when you tip the watch.
• A case back that unscrews rather than snapping shut, which usually means a better 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. All of it can change what the watch is worth, and it only works one way. A watch kept whole can still go for its gold next month; a melted one cannot be put back together. If a specialist or an auction room is the better route, you are told, 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 rather than outside, and on a hunter pocket watch there is often a second set inside the front lid. If you are not confident opening a watch, leave it shut and photograph the outside instead. A snap back prised with a kitchen knife scratches the case and sometimes bends the lip.

What a watch case mark tells you

Scroll sideways for more →

A solid gold watch case is thin sheet metal shaped into a shell, and once the movement is out of a small wristwatch there is often surprisingly little of it. People who judged the watch by its weight in the hand are frequently taken aback, because most of what they were feeling was steel. The UK hallmarks guide shows each mark at size.

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

The great majority of yellow twentieth-century watches are rolled gold or gold-filled. It is a real gold layer, thicker than plating and bonded rather than deposited, which is why these cases can look perfect after eighty years. There is still nowhere near enough of it to recover, so there is no metal in them for us to buy, and we would rather say that plainly than find a form of words.

• 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 never states a thickness, because there is nothing 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 give themselves away the same way: they look substantial and weigh almost nothing.
• A filled case that runs may still be worth more as a working watch than a solid gold case that does not. Not gold is not the same as not worth anything.

Surface testing can be fooled by a filled case, because the surface is gold, so the marks, the weight for size and a magnet come first. Then, where an analyser is available, a reading is taken inside the case back, where any layer is thinnest. An acid touchstone test is used only if you have agreed to it in writing (clause 4.2). Plated, rolled gold, gold-filled and vermeil sets the four constructions side by side.

The parts of a watch that are not bought as metal

• The movement. Steel and brass, with jewels that are synthetic ruby. On a small wristwatch it can be a third of the whole weight. Its weight is estimated and left out, it stays in the case until you have accepted, and it is then returned to you on request.
• The glass, dial and hands. Dials are usually silvered brass or enamel fired onto copper. They go back 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 tests as solid gold, and treated as a separate item from the case, because the two are frequently different metals.
• Leather, fabric and rubber straps. Take them off if it is easy; leave them on if it is not.

Movements are not rubbish, which is why they are offered back rather than binned. Repairers buy them for parts, and a watch that was flagged as possibly worth more whole is never separated from its movement at all. No movement leaves its case before you have accepted an offer. If you want the movement back, say so when you send the parcel and it is noted on your list from the start.

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, 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. Send it all and let it be sorted out here; scrap gold jewellery covers the chains.

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. Security and insurance covers the rest of the packing and the cover.

For anything with a name you recognise, the first step is not posting at all. Photograph the dial, the case back inside and out, and the movement if the back is already open, then send the pictures on WhatsApp. That costs nothing and answers the question that matters. 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. Assessed as a watchDial, movement, case style and condition are looked at, and it is wound to see whether it runs. Anything that should not be scrapped is set aside here and you are told.
3. Case marks readThe back is opened by someone with the right tools so that the marks inside it can be read under magnification and photographed, and the case is tested where those marks are absent or ambiguous. 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 the usual arrangement 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.

The one thing that never happens is a watch going straight onto a balance. Weight is the last question about a watch, not the first, and starting there would skip the part where your grandfather's chronograph gets 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

• Any watch with a recognised maker's name on the dial or movement is flagged before anything is decided
• A watch that runs and keeps reasonable time is usually worth more intact, whether the case is solid or filled
• Pocket watches with complications, enamel dials, engraved cases or early English movements attract specialist interest
• A watch with its original box, guarantee and receipts is worth materially more as a set than on its own
• Movements with value to repairers are offered back after you accept rather than discarded
• Military, railway and presentation watches with an inscription are checked for provenance before anything else