A 1930s Art Deco pocket watch with a "375" hallmark indicates 9-karat gold. Testing gold content is tricky: acid testing and cutting damage the watch, while X-ray fluorescence machines can give false readings if the watch has thick gold plating. Authentic gold watches carry clear karat marks.
We're going to talk about gold pocket watches today, and here is a good example for you. This pocket watch is from the 1930s. You can tell that because of the cool deco design here. Now, this is an open-face pocket watch. What that means is that there's no door on the COVID over here. So instead of having to open it with that extra door, you don't need to. It's right open for you. So on the back over here, You could see that it is a working model. The movement looks like it was kept in very good condition, and it's still working and ticking right now. Now, over here, you see the mark 375. What that means is that it's 37.5% gold. It also has a 9 there because 37.5% gold is the same as being 9-karat. So another thing that's interesting here is if it did not have that mark on it, it's very difficult to say that this is a gold pocket watch, because to test a gold pocket watch, you really, really have to cut into this piece, which means you either have to put a hard carved mark inside and then put the acid on it, or literally cut the back in half, which most people don't want to do. You could also use the machines at the pawn shop, jewelers, or refiners, an XRF machine. However, again, because it's such a thick plating on some of these gold watches, you could get a false positive. So the best thing with these and majority of them that are gold, they do have the mark of 10, 14, 18-karat, or in this case, 9-karat gold. But this is just a little bit of information. If you need any more information or have any other questions, don't hesitate to put it in the comments. Please subscribe so you don't miss any future videos.
