We took a watch apart to find out how much gold is in a watch and a watch case!

Important information about the used scale: The scale that we display on the photos is a basic scale and all weights were double-checked with our laboratory scale. The total deviation was less than 0.20 grams what can be considered insignificant for doing a rough value determination at home. If you sell to reDollar.com, all weighing processes are performed with very expensive and highly accurate laboratory scales.

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How much gold is in a watch and a watch case?

It’s important to find out how much gold is used to produce a watch as vintage watches with basic movements or vintage watches which are not working at all are priced by the weight and the gold’s value. We enjoy experiments which is why we dismantled a lady’s wristwatch to find out how much gold remains after removing all non-precious parts. Please scroll down to the bottom where you can find other movements from different watches that we weighted for comparison purposes.

Experiment Summary

Question 1: How much gold is in a watch?
Answer 1: We recovered 31.14 grams of gold

Question 2: How much gold is in a watch case?
Answer 2: The watch case weighed 2.62 grams.

The Experiment Details

“How much gold is in a watch?”

The total weight of the watch on the photo is 35.05 grams including non-precious parts as the movement and the crystal. Non-precious parts shouldn’t be underestimated as their weight is an important factor when it comes to find out how much the gold is worth. Just one single gram of 14K gold sells for $39.56 which is impacting the watch’s total value significantly. We made this experiment for private individuals with plans to sell gold watches to understand how gold watches are evaluated.

Question: How much gold is in a gold watch?

Total Mass: 35.05 gm

Total Watch Weight

Never underestimate the weight of watch movements. As you can see, this movement weighs 3.24 grams and 3.24 grams of 14K gold sells for $128.17 today. Gold is priced by the weight and when it comes to sell an unimportant gold watch or a watch that doesn’t run anymore every single gram matters. Knowing how much gold is in the watch is important for both, the seller and the buyer. The seller wants to make sure that the weight deduction for the movement is not overblown while the buyer worries about deducting too less weight for the movement.

Weight of movement: 3.24 gm

Compare other movements: please scroll down

Movement Weight

This particular watch case was made of only one part. Some watch cases are made of two parts, the back cover and the front. The pictured 14K gold case weighs 2.62 grams and sells for $103.64. Please make sure that gold-markings are present and double-check both markings, on the clasp and on the watch case. Sometimes the case is made of 14K gold but the watch band is probably made of 10K gold or even not made of solid gold at all. Watches with a gold case and a base metal band are very common. Always make sure that the band is made of solid gold. You can use a magnet for testing the band but please don’t get too close to the movement.

Watch case weight: 2.62 gm

Watch Back Weight

The pictured crystal weighs only 0.70 grams, however 0.70 grams of 14K gold are still worth $27.69 if included in the total gold weight. Make sure you find out how much the crystal weighs as some crystals can even weigh up to five grams. The pictured crystal (12.68 mm x 11.96 mm) is very small which is why its weight is less than a gram. Crystals from bigger watches such as men’s watches and pocket watches have a much higher weight.

Watch Crystal Weight: 0.70 gram

Chrystal Measurements: 12.68 mm x 11.96 mm

Watch Chrystal Weight

After removing all non-precious parts from the lady’s wristwatch, 31.14 grams of 14K gold are remaining. Compared with the watch’s total weight of 35.05 grams, all non-precious parts combined weigh 3.91 grams what would reflect a value of $154.67. We can recommend to sellers and buyers to find out how much gold is used to get an accurate result and appropriate price. Most watches are easy to dismantle without causing significant damages. The back usually pops-off easily what allows you to remove the movement carefully. Some watches can be tricky to take apart which is why we recommend to be gentle especially if the watch is still working.

Total Gold Weight: 31.14 grams

Watch Net Weight

Now comes the fun part of finding out how much the gold is worth. The watch we used for the experiment is made of solid 14K gold. One gram of 14K gold sells for $39.56 doing the math is multiplying 31.14 grams by $39.56 = $1231.85.

Question: How much gold is in a gold watch?
Answer: We could recover 31.14 grams of 14K gold.

Watch-Value: $1231.85

Calculate Gold Value