Can you polish a scratched gold case?

Light hand polishing removes superficial surface tarnish. You can use a jeweller's cloth to bring up the shine without damaging the metal. Machine polishing is a different story. A spinning mop strips away a thin layer of gold and softens crisp decorative edges. Most dealers prefer to leave minor historical scratches alone.

I inherited my grandfather's pocket watch and it hasn't been wound in decades, so should I try to get it ticking myself?

Leave the crown alone. The old oil inside the movement dries into a sticky paste over the years. Turning the gears forces grit through the delicate pivots. This grinding action easily snaps the fine steel tips off the wheels. Take it to a professional watchmaker first. They will strip the mechanism down and clean every part in specialist fluid before applying fresh synthetic lubricants.

What does a jewelled movement actually mean?

Watchmakers set tiny synthetic rubies into the brass plates to act as bearings. The steel gear shafts spin inside these hard stones to reduce friction. Higher counts generally point to a better grade of mechanism. Most standard mid-century movements use fifteen or seventeen jewels to protect the crucial pivots.

My vintage wristwatch runs about five minutes fast every single day no matter what I do, can this be easily adjusted?

Mechanical timepieces naturally drift a little, but a daily gain this large points to a specific issue. The hairspring is likely magnetised. Magnets in everyday electronics sometimes cause the fine coils of the hairspring to stick together. The watch then runs fast because the spring behaves as though it is shorter. A watchmaker can fix this in minutes. They pass the watch through a demagnetising machine to untangle the magnetic field.

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Antique Gold Watches

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Hand-wound mechanical timepieces housed in solid gold cases, these were carried in waistcoats or strapped to wrists to track the hours long before battery-powered quartz technology existed.