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Welcome Aboard IHC185™ Internet Horology Club 185 IHC185™ Discussion Site Main Page Horological Discussions, Questions and Answers European Pocket Watch Forum Gruen Wadsworth Case Question
Internet Horology Club 185 IHC185™ Discussion Site Main Page Horological Discussions, Questions and Answers European Pocket Watch Forum Gruen Wadsworth Case QuestionGo | New Topic | Find-Or-Search | Notify | Tools | Reply to Post | |
| IHC Member 1016 |
I have a 17 j 5adj Gruen Verithin in a "14K Gold Reinforced with Metal" Wadsworth case. Is this a fancy notation for Gold Filled? | ||
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| IHC President Life Member  |
Thats exactly right Mike, Let's examine some of the more interesting case content descriptions! During the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century some case makers went out of their way to come up with inventive descriptions that creatively describe case content, but there's one word they will practically never use. They'll rarely if ever state what the major ingredient in Gold-Filled cases really is... BRASS! By the way I recall thinking "Gold-Filled" meant the case was "fully-gold" when I first started collecting.  It didn't take long for me to discover that fatal error! I believe the "Complete Guide to Watches" is the very first reference to acquire and at the same time also learn to use the "Find-Or-Search" on our site!  In the jewelry trade anything but gold, silver or platinum was just considered metal, but of course "metal" sounds strong so on your example they say the case is reinforced with metal. It's true, but it also effectively avoids explaining gold content. It would be many years until they finally had to state what the case really was. By the early 1920s more descriptive terms such as "10K Gold-Filled" or "10K Gold Plate" replaced the previous guarantees of wear and other dubious statements such as on your case and the one you see below. Here is one of the more creative content descriptions...  | |||
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Hi, Lindell is right about the general classification of all the gold filled cases. However, I do think there is some merit to Gruen's claim to 'reinforced gold' or 'reinforced with extra gold' unseen by other makers. The following is a diagram taken from Gruen's guild catalog:  | ||||
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| IHC Member 1016 |
Thanks Lin and Ben. It seems there is a lot to the marking on a case. I want to sell this Gruen, but wasn't sure how to advertise it. | |||
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