How thick is Gold Filled

[Rod]

Well for those that have ever wondered like I have, here is an indication. This is a Gold Feather that has a Gold Filled case as can be seen on the well worn horn the gold is quite thick (almost worth mining).

[small]

I thought I had seen some brands mention the micron thickness of there plating. Oris IIRC is 20 micron.

Also back in the olden days of pocket watches where I guess you would buy a movement and then a case. The thicker the gold the longer the warranty for it. 10 year watch cases would last longer than those without a warranty and not as long as those with say a 20 or even 25 year. And still cheaper than a Solid gold watch of the same K. 

[SeikoSoMatic]

Seiko used different thicknesses, which would be noted inside the caseback, in the early '60s. I've seen a 1st production year (1961) King Seiko which had 100 microns, pretty thick. 

[victor]

There are different claims about differences in the types of gold covering on base metal watch cases (gold plated, gold filled, gold capped).  From what I've read, gold plated is electroplating and is very thin - 10 or 20 microns.  Gold filled uses heat and pressure to bond the gold to the watch case is thicker and supposedly the gold is supposed to equal 1/20th (5%) of the total metal weight of the case.  So a gold filled case might be marked 1/20 14K GF which indicates that it's 5% 14karat gold.

Not germane to the current thread, but gold capped is even thicker - essentially a layer of gold is molded over the base metal case and is bonded to it.

So in order:

- Gold plating might be just 10 to 20 microns - 0.05% actual gold or less

- Gold filled would be 1/20th total weight - Gold filled jewelry has almost 100x more gold than gold plated jewelry

- Gold capped would be more than gold filled -a thick shell often made of 14kt or even 18kt gold, up to 240 microns thick.

- Solid gold which is a case made entirely of 9K or more gold - for instance 14k solid gold means 14 parts gold (58.3%) and 10 parts alloys (41.7%), while 18k solid gold means 18 parts gold (75%) and 6 parts alloys (25%).

Incidentally, parts of these text are stolen without credit from various web sources, so if I ever become president of Harvard, please don't draw attention to this post.

[Rod]

Feb 23, 2024 8:15:01 GMT -8 victor said:

There are different claims about differences in the types of gold covering on base metal watch cases (gold plated, gold filled, gold capped).  From what I've read, gold plated is electroplating and is very thin - 10 or 20 microns.  Gold filled uses heat and pressure to bond the gold to the watch case is thicker and supposedly the gold is supposed to equal 1/20th (5%) of the total metal weight of the case.  So a gold filled case might be marked 1/20 14K GF which indicates that it's 5% 14karat gold.

Not germane to the current thread, but gold capped is even thicker - essentially a layer of gold is molded over the base metal case and is bonded to it.

So in order:

- Gold plating might be just 10 to 20 microns - 0.05% actual gold or less

- Gold filled would be 1/20th total weight - Gold filled jewelry has almost 100x more gold than gold plated jewelry

- Gold capped would be more than gold filled -a thick shell often made of 14kt or even 18kt gold, up to 240 microns thick.

- Solid gold which is a case made entirely of 9K or more gold - for instance 14k solid gold means 14 parts gold (58.3%) and 10 parts alloys (41.7%), while 18k solid gold means 18 parts gold (75%) and 6 parts alloys (25%).

Incidentally, parts of these text are stolen without credit from various web sources, so if I ever become president of Harvard, please don't draw attention to this post.

Very interesting, so this would hold true with this case as it's 14K Gold filled. I assume the thickness may vary across the watch?