Abstract
The attractive colour of gold, its brightness, durability as well as its tarnish and corrosion resistance made it the choice material for watch cases, from the earliest ‘onion’ of the 16th century to today's multi-motor quartz wrist chronograph. But the use of gold was never just limited to the case and other visible parts. Fire gilding was used in the earliest watches to protect baseplate, bridges and gears from tarnishing and corrosion. In order to give the watch the highest possible value linked with aesthetics and functionality, most (but not all) watch parts have been made of gold alloys at one time or another or have been gold plated. Gold is purely functional as a brazing compound; it is indispensable for chip bonding, wiring and frequency adjustment in electronic watches.
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The author is a graduate of the Physical Chemistry Department of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland. He worked as a research metallurgist and materials scientist both in Switzerland and the United States. From 1972 to 1997 he was the science and technology editor of Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the leading daily newspaper in Switzerland. He is the author of numerous articles and two books on gold and watchmaking, respectively. He is currently active as a freelance science writer and book author.
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Trueb, L.F. Gold in watchmaking. Gold Bull 33, 11–24 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03215478
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03215478