13 Jun 2019, 01:27
There is a world of difference between "gold plated" and "gold filled". To put all this in perspective, consider that the average thickness of gold plating is 2-5 microns. A micron is a thousandth of a millimeter, or .00003937 inches (so, on the high side, a typical plating is .0001968 inches thick, or about two ten-thousandths of an inch). As tiny a thickness as this is, it is still 20-50 times thicker than gold leaf (which is usually about 0.1 micron).
Gold fill, in contrast, is usually 40-80 microns thick (Pulsar used the industry standard of 80 microns; about .00315 inch; roughly the thickness of a sheet of printer paper, on the cases...the bracelets were 20 microns). So, gold fill is, on average, 16-40 times thicker than plating.
I would consider plated watches unrestorable, except by re-plating. Even goldfilled watches are marginal, at best; there is still no real amount of metal to work with...anything beyond gentle abrasions or light scratches, is essentially the end of the story.
I can work magic on stainless or solid gold, but, in 15 years, I doubt I have restored as many as a dozen goldfilled cases.
Last edited by
bruce wegmann on 13 Jun 2019, 06:20, edited 1 time in total.