Waltham pocket watches question

[dbane883]

Does anyone here have any knowledge of Waltham pocket watches? I was asked by one of my colleagues if I knew of what his small collection of watches might be worth. They were passed down to him from a relative.

He was given the following info about them:

1. Gold Filled Waltham- 1 3/4 " diam Patterned Case--17 jewel

Second Hand Engraved on back AM C 1920

2 18Kt 2" diameter London England circa 1864--Key wound -- Chain Driven

Second hand= White enamel face + 2 keys & 15 inch chain.

3. 14kt Gold Waltham 1 3/4" diam .- White face Polished case cv. 1911

My guess is that they are not worth very much, but what do I know? Anyone one have a clue?

[HaydenM]

Some of the gold ones can be worth a little bit but the unfortunate thing is that most people just sell the gold for scrap and throw away or sell the movement for nothing.

[Nightwatch]

Not a specialist, but I´ve been looking a lot into pocketwatches the last few months. Most of these Hamiltons are just worth between $150 and $300, a bit more for the gold. If it is some rare collectors item prices may rocket over $2000 fast. Pics of the movement/ calibre are the most important imo.

Also back than hundreds of swiss watchmakers where flooding the American market with poor reproduction swiss fakes "when a Hamilton is not a Hamilton", how times do change.... nowadays that industry just loves to put the past behind hitting hard on reps.

 

The movements may be used for really beautiful builds ala pilot-watch or vintage PAM.

Waltham pocket watch conversion from HF (not my pic)

[automatico]

The gold British key wind is a collector item but not many buyers around. Would not scrap the case but would look for a buyer even if the price is 70 or 80 percent of the worth of the gold. It needs to be preserved. But...you never know what a buyer will do with the case no matter what they say.

 

 'Quicky Lube' gold buyers usually pay 30 to 50 percent of scrap value and honest buyers will pay around 60 or 70 percent. A friend in the jewelry business sells scrap to the smelting company for close to 90 percent but he sells gold two times a week and stays on top of prices. His buy offers are good only for the day the item was weighed, the next day it may be more or less depending on gold price.

Today's gold is around 1295USD per Troy ounce. One Troy ounce = 31.103 grams. One gram of pure gold at $1250 per Troy ounce is worth about $40USD, so one gram of 18k gold (75% pure) is worth about $30 and 14k (58% pure) is about $23 per gram at full value.

 

The gold filled Waltham is not worth much, maybe $75 to $100 to a collector if it runs and maybe $30 or $40 to someone buying it for resale. Retail stores will ask up to $300 for the same watch but they are waiting for a sucker.

 

The gold case Waltham is worth quite a bit more, maybe $250 or more depending on how much the case weighs.

'Worth' = full gold value (see note above). People selling gold watches as a watch (not for scrap) usually price them at close to full gold value to boost the price.

 

Unless the gold filled Waltham has a high jeweled movement (21 or 23 jewels) it is not worth very much sad to say. The gold case Waltham should be kept as is, not scrapped if possible.

High jewel counts in 12 size and smaller watches does not help much.

 

I bought a new in box Hamilton 992B in 1972 for $160 (stainless case) and today a used example in 90% condition might go for $275 or $300 so they have not held their value very well. A nos 992B may go for $500 to $1000 though.

$160 in 1972 is about $900 today.

[dbane883]

Thank you for your help gents.   Very helpful.