What are the different metals that watch cases are made out of?
Watch cases were made of many different metals or combinations, some stand up to wear better than others, some cost more than others. Metal alloys -To understand watch case metals you must understand the concept of metal alloys. An alloy is a mixture of more than one metal – many metals, like gold or silver are very soft by themselves, and it has been found that heating them to a liquid state and then adding another metal to them and mixing the two together results in a metal that is much harder and stronger that will stand up to wear much better. Solid gold – everyone is familiar with the karat stampings – 14K, 18K etc. but what do they mean? Basically there are 24 possible units – 24 karat is pure gold, but gold in its solid state is too soft to make things like jewelry or watches out of – they would wear and not be practical, so other metals are added to give the metal strength. Thus 14K means 14 parts pure gold and 10 parts alloy(14 plus 10 equals 24), 18 karat is 18 parts pure gol
