New rep "gold" technique coming?

[archibald]

Went down to the local outlet mall today and as always killed a few minutes at the little watch kiosk which sells a lot of "off brand" versions of watches that have to be built at the sam factories that make the sub-$200 reps carried by a few of our dealers--lots a "rolexes," "omegas," "patek" etc usually under brand names that look like the gen's brand name 5 feet away. Anyway, the guy showed me a couple of "daytonas" and a "patek" that he said were milled from tungsten and then plated. Judging from the weight of these pieces he wasn't lying. I'd guess they were as least as heavy as they'd be if they were 18k. They also had a couple dozen non-plated, non-rep pieces that has tags that indicated they were tungsten as well, and they were also very heavy.

I wonder if someday we're going to see some decent "18K" reps that weigh as much as they would if they were solid gold. Since gold watches, gen or rep, are dumb buys these days and since since the main tell between a 18k YG plated watch and a solid one is the weight, this would be a welcome development.

[rodwc]

that he said were milled from tungsten and then plated. Judging from the weight of these pieces he wasn't lying.

Don`t mean to show any dis-respect here but tungsten can`t be milled, it can only be ground with diamond wheels and the green grit silicon carbide wheels.

I think the only way these watch cases could be made in tungsten is, if they were drop forged in sintered tungsten.

[archibald]

Don`t mean to show any dis-respect here but tungsten can`t be milled, it can only be ground with diamond wheels and the green grit silicon carbide wheels.

I think the only way these watch cases could be made in tungsten is, if they were drop forged in sintered tungsten.

I doubt the guy selling those watches is much of a metallurgist, but thanks for the clarification. Whatever process they were made by couldnt have been too expensive--they were selling for $100.

[Corgi]

If they made a nice, proper, heavy full gold Rolex DJ or DD and the plating didn't rub off after just a few months I would buy it, sure... I think lots of people would. I doubt it's going to happen, however, because the gold plating methods currently used by manufacturers are probably the most cost-effective solution avilable. For these men, money talks, and since these timepieces are good sellers currently bringing in maximum profit there seems to be no need to invest in changing that!

[Logan]

Real tungsten without the plating would be nice too, the new Big Bang looks pretty cool, and the tungsten has a colour that stands out from other silver metals. I'm guess Hublot make the parts using a similar technique to the ceramic ones.

Tungsten in pure form is not actually that hard, but combined with carbon alloy (see link below for more) to make Tungsten Carbide is is one of the hardest substances know, just slight less than diamond. It is used as the cutting tools themselves in most machining so as very hard to machine itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungsten_carbide

There are loads of tungsten carbide watches and jewelry available. For example:

http://www.tungstenworld.com/Tungsten-Carbide-Watches/

[archibald]

http://www.tungstenworld.com/Tungsten-Carbide-Watches/

The cartier and tag stules were exactly the watches I saw. Doing the math @ principalmetals.com, the cool thing is that since tugsten is so heavy if you're doing a daytona for exanple--only the case would have to be made of tungsten to get the weight very close to an 18k gen. The bezel, crown, pushers, etc could be made from steel.