Durability of Watches/Movements Made of "Black Gold"

3579 Views 12 Replies 6 Participants Last post by CometHunter, Apr 5, 2011

tom_hanx

Discussion Starter · Mar 30, 2011

Oh, the sweet torment of research... :biggrin:

Some of you have seen me falling head over heals the Zenith Elite Ultra Thin in another forum...

Well, in the permanent quest of perfection [just another way of saying "still do not have the cash to spend, so I'm trying to keep me sane"], I have started investigating alternatives, like the oh-so-awesome-looking NOMOS Zurich.

One thing I notice on the website is that the movement is listed as "Movement: ε (epsilon)—manufactory caliber with automatic movement, black gold". I did some reading on Wikipedia to find out that this is a 75% gold alloy with 25% of something else (depending on color variation).

I am posting to hear your thoughts on some of these questions:

- Is black gold alloy tough enough to last decades (pass onto next generation)?

- If price of the Zenith and the Nomos were equal: which one would you pick? Why?

- If you had to pick a dress watch and you had the choice - with or without date?

Thanks for your feedback :thumbup:

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1 - 13 of 13 Posts

Valtyr

· #2 · Mar 30, 2011

A situation I find myself in too.

I'm really interested in the Zenith Class Elite, and the Nomos Tangomat.

Zenith is easier to obtain, but I think Nomos might be my preference. I don't want someone to say "oh yeah, I have a Zenith TV" when they look at my watch, and I think Nomos is a little less known, and is such a sleek design.

I love them both and will love to see when you get one!

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CometHunter

· #3 · Mar 30, 2011

tom_hanx said:
- Is black gold alloy tough enough to last decades (pass onto next generation)?
- If price of the Zenith and the Nomos were equal: which one would you pick? Why?
- If you had to pick a dress watch and you had the choice - with or without date?

1)If I'm understanding Wiki properly, that alloy is only a surface treatment or coating, and would not alter the integrity of the metal underneath.

2)Zenith.
*They have a richer history.
*They have the El Primero movement which I worship (it was used for years in the Rolex Cosmograph until Rolex FINALLY developed and made its own).
*NOMOS's designs are a little too minimalistic for my personal taste.

3)The date feature is unnecessary for me. I have too hard a time trying to read those tiny little numerals. If they were bigger, like with A. Lange & Sohne, that would be different.
*I might go without one anyway. It's odd, but I do not yet own a post-1980s watch without the date feature ( my Masonic watch is late 70s).

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ulackfocus

· #4 · Mar 30, 2011

I prefer the thinness of the Zenith for a dress watch. I also like the subdial at 9:00. I do like the Tangomat series from Nomos quite a bit though and would like the Datum model as a casual watch. Balanced dial presentations are very important to me so if there has to be a date window I'd like it at 6 or 12. This seems to be more symmetrical with a subdial at 6:00.

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Enzo Temko

· #5 · Mar 30, 2011

I like the zen quality of the Nomos, but I think they are only 35mm. That is too small I think. I'd like to see the sizes of these watches and look at the cases in real life. Putting them on is really the only final test.

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tom_hanx

Discussion Starter · #6 · Mar 30, 2011

Enzo Temko said:
I like the zen quality of the Nomos, but I think they are only 35mm. That is too small I think. I'd like to see the sizes of these watches and look at the cases in real life. Putting them on is really the only final test.

The Zurich is 40mm, like Ludwig and one Tangomat at 39,7

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kalessin

· #7 · Mar 30, 2011

Keep in mind that all 18K gold is 75% gold by weight, whether it be yellow, pink, white, black, green, whatever. That has nothing to do with its durability. A pure gold watch would be incredibly soft and not durable.

As was pointed out, there are several ways to make black gold but they typically involve the production of a surface layer by oxidation or deposition. It's unclear to me how durable this surface would be and it likely depends on the manner in which the black colour is achieved.

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CometHunter

· #8 · Mar 31, 2011

kalessin said:
...how durable this surface would be and it likely depends on the manner in which the black colour is achieved.

How it's applied is just as important. I used to work with chemical vapor deposition coaters in the Thin Films Technology Division of Bausch & Lomb and I can tell you first-hand that film can be incredibly thin (remember mirrored Ray Bans?). You could rub off a coating of aluminum with a pencil eraser or fingernail.

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tom_hanx

Discussion Starter · #9 · Apr 4, 2011

I received in the mail the paper catalogue which holds a little more info. It reads that the movement is "black gold-plated" :huh:

The way I read it - 1) not solid gold but plated and 2) the plating is black. Does this make any sense? :confused1:

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CometHunter

· #10 · Apr 4, 2011

Purely as a descriptor for "black gold movement", yes it makes perfect sense.

What I'm having a hard time with is WHY Zenith (or anybody else for that matter) would use plating on a movement. Surely it can't be a superfluous sales gimmick!

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ulackfocus

· #11 · Apr 4, 2011

CometHunter said:
What I'm having a hard time with is WHY Zenith (or anybody else for that matter) would use plating on a movement. Surely it can't be a superfluous sales gimmick!

Many companies coat the bridges & plates of their movements for decoration and prevention of corrosion. Rhodium and gold are the most common metals applied, but even copper has been used (Omega).

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tom_hanx

Discussion Starter · #12 · Apr 4, 2011

CometHunter said:
Purely as a descriptor for "black gold movement", yes it makes perfect sense.

What I'm having a hard time with is WHY Zenith (or anybody else for that matter) would use plating on a movement. Surely it can't be a superfluous sales gimmick!

It is not Zenith - it was NOMOS who do this black gold plating... :huh:

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CometHunter

· #13 · Apr 5, 2011

ulackfocus said:
Many companies coat the bridges & plates of their movements for decoration and prevention of corrosion. Rhodium and gold are the most common metals applied, but even copper has been used (Omega).

I sit corrected. :blush:
For some reason, I forgot about bridges and was only thinking of parts with metal-to-metal contact.

My bad!

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