Gold pocket watch!

[digger27]

A rare one off the bucket list.
I will have to take it to the jeweler tomorrow and have it tested and opened but it is gold of some kind and very heavy.
I am hoping it is solid gold but we will see.
No matter what, I am thrilled.

I will update this after I find out what this thing is really made out of.

 

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[creskol]

Very cool .. Can't wait to hear the outcome! Nice find!

 

[Gridwalker306]

Holy mackerel, that's great! Let us know the grade of gold and value!

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Awesome! Congrats!

 

[Twinkletoes]

Fantastic Find! I can't wait to here what it's made of! Congratulations!

 

[Argentium]

Absolutely incredible find man ! Please keep us posted on what it is - I think you have the real thing (1890's and 14K)

 

[ModernMiner]

Great find. I hope it turns out to be gold and not plated. I just sold one that my grandmother had. It was made in the 1880's. It was beautiful and complete, but didn't work. I took it to a jeweler to see if it was gold or just plated. He popped it open and saw the word "warranted" inside which instantly told him it was plated. I got a whopping $35 on Ebay for it. You would think a beautiful old watch from the 1880's would be worth more than that.
-MM-

 

[jewelerguy]

sure looks good. hope it's a winner

 

[jcobb]

Looks to be gold! If it were to be plated you would see tarnish coming trough and chipped off.

Good luck!!! Hoping it's the real deal!

 

[bountyhuntergirl86]

Nice pocket watch

 

[boomerlucas]

very nice, I'm all WOUND up, can't wait to hear more

 

[1meanmoose]

Nice find, congrats!!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using TreasureNet

 

[treblehunter]

Cool find, way to go.

 

[RobRieman]

That's timeless! Lol

 

[wvdirtdigger]

Way to go. I'd say that looks like the real McCoy!! HH

 

[digger27]

How and where did you find it! Looks amazing!

So glad you asked, here is the story.

I have an F70 coming to me but only because I want , not because I need it.
I have dome extremely well with my little F2 and my Compadre, both are beasts on coins and have found me a ton along with way more than my share of jewelry and other great finds.
Add in my Vaquero which has 3 coils I have a pretty complete arsenal and I have been using that one when I need to go deep and also the large 10X12 DD coil when I want to cover wide open large areas without many bottle caps because they seem to mimic quarters which is the problem with many detectors and that type of coil.
I like to switch around and use all 3, keeps down the boredom and I have great fun with all 3 but just in slightly different ways.
I put the sniper coil on the F2 a year ago last August and started targeting mostly the trashiest sites imaginable because jewelry is always my goal and gold most of all and using that small coil on the F2 the gold has been just jumping out of the ground for me and I have found about 13 gold targets since I mounted that small coil on the F2, a few gold rings with the Compadre and silver chains too because that thing is the best chain finder I have ever swung and I recently got a sniper coil for the Vaq and even that one has sniffed out a little gold for me since I mounted it.

I bought a 10" coil for the F2 because it was so cheap, but because I have been targeting the trashier areas for awhile I rarely used it until I put in on and hunted a site very close to my home, a Jr college with 2 old soccer fields and a football field back to back to back that were used by the college and a a high school right next door but both have built better facilities so they aren't used much anymore.
I used the F2 and sniper to clean up the sidelines of the soccer fields and the football field because of the trash in these areas and that thing did its job well because I found a ton of clad and even some silver and a gold class ring.
When I wandered over the larger field areas of these fields with the sniper coil I found very few signals at all so I thought there was not much there, but after getting rid of most of the trash on the sidelines I put the 10" coil on the F2 to see what else I could find and what I missed there and I was very surprised to see these fields did have targets when I walked over them now with that larger coil...lots of them as a matter of fact but hunting these large areas with that small coil is very inefficient at best and I found a ton more coins, several pocket spills a Kennedy half and even a Fossil watch, all targets I missed using the sniper.
Just like snipers can find you more of the good stuff in trashy areas, the large coils can find you much in the larger areas so I have been revisiting a few of my sites and targeting some of the more wide open areas with this same setup hoping to find something great that I missed when I wandered around these areas with those smaller coils.

This was one of those sites.
I was at a large park in my area that I love to hunt because it is about 90 acres, has all sorts of picnic pavilions and a pretty good size fishing lake and areas all around this lake to hunt, a type of site that is my favorite because hunting near water for me is so serene.

I was near the end of the lake, an area with a little cove where some people fish and also has a picnic pavilion and I figure people hung out all over this thing and I have been to this exact area and hunted it several times with the F2 and the sniper and the 8" coil and the Compadre too, and I tried to cover as much as possible but concentrated near the pavilion and near to the shore.
I know for sure the piece of ground where the watch was I hunted before, but I either missed the target completely or I did come across it but it came in as a very high tone with numbers in the low 90's...something that is usually a full crushed can or some large piece of rusted iron.
I have only dug about 6 targets that were any good in the low 90's on the F2 out of thousands but this past summer I did find 2 Franklin halves and a Kennedy half about a week ago and that was in the back of my mind so if I passed by this signal in the past thinking it was a can that was not going to happen this time.
I opened a small hole and this thing was only about 3" deep in the side of the hole, I grabbed it thinking it was a cap to a pipe because it had smooth ends and was really heavy but when I saw the porcelain dial I knew.

I have posted this on other forums and some say it is plated, others with some antique watch experience think it is solid at 10k or maybe even 14k but later today I will have the jeweler take off the back and we will know.

No matter what this is a big thrill for me and I won't be passing by many can signals because of this for awhile I would think.

 

[pepperj]

Nice going on the pocket watch, hope it turns out to be solid.

 

[digger27]

AAAAANNNNDDDD...it's gold filled!

Awww...but still a great and thrilling find.

Even the jeweler said he couldn't get the back off without destroying it so I will work on it and see if I can do it and keep it intact.
I gotta see if I can track down the manufacturing dates of the case and the movement so that is the next mystery to be solved.

I will update that info when I get that back off.

 

[VWandSTUDEBAKER]

Did he say if its a screw off or pop off back? Cant see any name on the face from the pictures, otherwise I could look it up in my watch book. Once you get the back off, if you have a good magnifying glass, you can see if there are any repair dates to give you an indication of its age.
The case will either be gold filled, rolled gold or gold gilding. Once the back is off you will know for sure.

 

[g-olden years]

CONGRATS ON YOUR BEAUTIFUL WATCH! Not solid like you hoped, but beautiful, mellow, wonderful!
I've dug varied sections of pocket watches, but none in nice condition like yours is. I joke that if I keep detecting another 20 years, I'll have enuf gears, faces, etc. to build an entire watch -- but how long would I enjoy looking at it when in my 90's? lol Andi