Stainless steel is a wonder material. It’s an alloy, made resistant to corrosion, staining, scratching, and pitting by the addition of iron, chromium, and nickel. It’s hypoallergenic. Surgeons use it in scalpels; engineers use it to build bridges. As a modern material for watches, it’s the designer’s dream — tough, iconic, and relatively cheap.
But then again, nobody ever made a stainless steel calf and worshiped it, did they?
For all of gold’s faults — it’s soft, scratches easily, and is very heavy — the material is still the most iconic case material for a watch, hands down. Wear a big steel Rolex and you get in the room; wear a big gold Rolex, and you own the room. If Bruce Willis’s dad in Pulp Fiction had owned a stainless steel heirloom watch, do you really think Christopher Walken’s character would’ve hid it up his ass for five years? Five months, maybe. That’s the difference gold makes.
The reasons why are simple. We talk a lot about watches as “heirloom pieces,” and a precious metal watch is the best way to pass on wealth: you are quite literally gifting a hunk of metal work lots of money in any currency. The value in a watch today doesn’t come from telling the time. Our phones do that now.
A watch is a piece of jewelry that you can also use. Wearing gold — or, if you’re really breaking the bank, platinum — jewelry, just like in the days of Canaan, is a statement of wealth. Today, it’s also a statement of fashion. And, if your gold watch is from one of the best watchmakers in the world, as these are, you’re also making a statement about your love of timekeeping. These are our favorite timepieces in yellow, pink, red, and white gold — oh, and platinum, too.
Quick Guide to Gold
Because pure gold is very soft and scratches easily, it is usually combined with other metals when made into jewelry. Yellow gold includes silver, copper and zinc. The “red” golds — pink, rose, and red — include varying amounts of copper, which add their reddish hue. And white gold has nickel, palladium and silver, often with rhodium coating to give it its pure white color.
Karat guide:
24 karat is pure, 100 percent gold
18 karat 75% gold
14 karat, 58.3% gold
Yellow Gold:
Yellow gold looks the closest of any of the alloyed golds to the pure thing, but it still includes silver, copper, and zinc. For a stretch in the early 2000s, yellow gold was on the outs — it recalled the hairy opulence of the 80s and 90s. Which, of course, is extremely “in” nowadays. And even if it isn’t as hip as pink or red gold, the “fuck you” factor of a big hunk of yellow gold on the wrist is huge.
Hamilton Intra-Matic
If you’re going for the bold yellow gold look on a budget, Hamilton’s Intra-matic fits the bill. (Its gold is actually a PVD finish over steel). We’ll allow it, since the Intra-matic has classic styling and, well, we can’t all afford the real thing.
Case Material: PVD yellow gold over steel
Movement: ETA 2892-A2 automatic
Diameter: 38mm
Price: $995
Cartier Santos
Cartier’s square-shaped Santos watch is an absolute icon and has a significant place in watchmaking history. Well-proportioned and just 9.1mm thick (in this particular iteration), it wears very comfortably and has an appeal like few other watches. It might be nice in steel as well, but for our dollar, the yellow gold captures vintage Cartier elegance to a T.
Case Material: 18k yellow gold
Movement: 1847 MC automatic
Diameter: 39.8mm
Price: $33,700
Rolex Day-Date 40 “President”
There’s a reason this watch has been worn by world leaders, and in particular, U.S. presidents. When it was first released in 1956, the Day-Date was the first watch to indicate the day of the week fully spelt out. More importantly, its pie-pan bezel and thin, elegant bracelet (from whence its name comes) befit any giant of politics.
Case Material: 18 carat gold
Movement: Caliber 3255 automatic
Diameter: 40mm
Price: $36,550
Omega Speedmaster Apollo 11 50th Anniversary
Celebrating the 1969 moon landing, Omega gifted a gold Speedmaster to astronauts and other notable people the very same year. This is a recreation of that watch, right down to the red bezel, to mark the anniversary. While the brand calls its specific alloy "Moonshine" gold and describes it as being slightly paler than typical yellow gold, it's yellow enough for our purposes. Even the manually wound 3861 movement visible through the case back uses the material as a plating.
Case Material: 18 carat "Moonshine" gold
Movement: Calibre 3861 handwound
Diameter: 42mm
Price: $34,600
Pink and Rose Gold
Pink and rose gold, like red gold, get their reddish hues from the addition of copper, but they also feature small amounts of silver. That coloration is beautiful and subtle, still showcasing AU but providing a good palate for pairing with bright colors.
Bremont Supersonic
The Brits at Bremont make tough pilot’s watches. (See: the watch that you can only get if you’ve ejected out of an airplane). But they’ve gone a little soft with this rose gold version of their handsome Supersonic. Thankfully. Its chunky case makes for the perfect hunk of rose gold.
Case Material: 18 carat rose gold
Movement: BE-11M handwound
Diameter: 43mm
Price: $22,495
A Lange & Sohne Saxonia Thin
It’s telling that A. Lange & Sohne’s entry-level watch comes in pink gold. Lange doesn’t do “affordable,” so $17k is about as entry-level as they get. The Saxonia Thin 37mm is an excellent pink gold dress watch, and a case study in Lange’s elegance — by dropping the bells and whistles of timepieces like, say, their absurdly complex, absurdly brilliant Langematik, they reveal how perfect a simple gold watch can be.
Case Material: Pink gold
Movement: L093.1 handwound
Diameter: 37mm
Price: ~$17,845
Nomos Lambda Rose Gold
NOMOS exploded onto the watchmaking scene in 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and remains one of the hippest German watchmakers with serious chops. Their Lambda features an enormous 84-hour power reserve meter that stretches across most of the dial. In rose gold, its elegance and style are amplified.
Case Material: 18k rose gold
Movement: DUW 1001 handwound
Diameter: 42mm
Price: $18,500
Vacheron Constantin Patrimony
Vacheron is one of high horology’s “big three,” alongside Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe, and their Patrimony is a classic dress watch: two-handed, clean, and, of course, gold. The pink gold is our favorite, though it is available in yellow, white, and red, too — but that slight pink color pairs best with the new sunburst dark blue dial.
Case Material: 18k 5N pink gold
Movement: 40mm
Diameter: Caliber 1400 handwound
Price: $18,100
Bulgari Octo Finissimo
The Bulgari Octo was first released in steel; in 2016, a titanium version made it even lighter. (Later, the watch was briefly the thinnest automatic on the market, in 2017.) The 2018 rose gold version, however, added a luxury touch to the ultra-thin (5.5mm) case: Bulgari sand-blasted it and gave it an integrated bracelet, for a badass matte look that pairs perfectly with the 18k rose gold dial.
Case Material: Sandblasted 18k rose gold
Movement: BVL 138 automatic
Diameter: 40mm
Price: $45,700
Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711/1R
Every chunky, bezelled ounce of the Patek Nautilus is a gift. The 5711 put the rose gold case on a rose gold bracelet, and the finishing is on par with anything like it in the world. To see this level of beauty executed in rose gold — with a chocolate brown dial to boot! — is enough to make any Genta fan drool.
Case Material: rose gold
Movement: 324 S C automatic
Diameter: 40mm
Price: $53,300
Red Gold
Just like pink gold, red gold is alloyed with copper. The only difference is that it has more of it, and hence, a darker red hue. Consider it a statement maker.
IWC Portugieser Chronograph
Everything about IWC’s Portugieser Chronograph in red gold is elegant. The Arabic numerals and dot dial markers? Elegant. The feuille hands? Elegant. The sub-dials at 12 and 6? Elegant. The red gold case, perfectly slim and quiet, despite its rich hue — do we really have to say it again?
Case Material: 18k red gold
Movement: IWC 69355 automatic
Diameter: 41mm
Price: $17,800
Baume & Mercier Clifton Baumatic Perpetual Calendar
Baume & Mercier’s Cliftons have graced several Gear Patrol lists of solid affordable watches. At SIHH 2019, the brand released an upscale version of their Clifton Baumatic, a perpetual calendar watch in 18k red gold. $24k doesn’t sound like a deal, but many perpetual calendar watches cost much more. For those into the design language of the Baumatic, it’s a great red-gold horological nugget.
Case Material: 18k red gold
Movement: BM13-1975AC-1 automatic
Diameter: 42mm
Price: $24,500
Panerai Luminor Marina 8 Days Oro Rosso
While Panerai calls this specific case material "Goldtech," the term Oro Rosso in this model's name gives its composition away: oro rosso means "red gold" in Italian (not to be confused with oro rosa, which means "pink gold"). However, the alloy also contains platinum to help prevent oxidation. Just about any Panerai watch has a healthy dose of bravado, but blinged out in precious metal makes it even more so, and the classic, chunky Panerai case at 44mm will make its presence felt on the wrist.
Case Material: "Goldtech"
Movement: P.5000 handwound
Diameter: 44mm
Price: $21,500
White Gold
White gold is made using nickel, palladium, and silver. Often, a rhodium plating is added to give the gold a purer white color, since white gold on its own retains a yellowish hue. In the right watch, it adds the value of a precious metal, but its visual similarities to stainless steel mean it doesn’t distract from superb dial and bezel design.
H. Moser & Cie. Endeavour Perpetual Calendar
H. Moser & Cie. was re-established in 2002 after a hundred or so years of dormancy as a watchmaker. Today, the company is known for its spare dials and slightly funky takes on traditional watch styles. The Endeavour Perpetual Calendar is a combination of different elements that would seem hard to reconcile: it's minimalist, displaying only the time, month and date, but it offers the handy functionality and highly complicated mechanics of a perpetual calendar.
Case Material: 18k white gold
Movement: HMC 800 handwound
Diameter: 42mm
Price: $54,000
Rolex Submariner Date
The eminently versatile and perfectly proportioned Submariner is one of the most iconic look in watches, which is why Rolex fans were half-shocked when the brand announced it was increasing its familiar 40mm case by a whopping one millimeter. The pragmatic dive watch looks incredible in this swanky version, with a white gold case and bracelet matched to a black dial and blue ceramic bezel.
Case Material: 18 carat white gold
Movement: Caliber 3235 automatic
Diameter: 41mm
Price: $39,650
A. Lange & Sohne Odysseus
If the Saxonia Thin (see: the rose gold section) is Lange formality to perfection, the Odysseus represents the German brand's sportier side. A. Lange & Söhne released the Odysseus first as a steel sports watch with versatility in mind, but it feels equally at home in white gold. If you’re going to spend $45 grand on a sport watch, doubling down on gold just seems like the right thing to do.
Case Material: White gold
Movement: L952.2 automatic
Diameter: 41.5mm
Price: ~$45,550
Platinum
As Will Smith once asked, “Would you like to bounce with the brother that’s Platinum?” The answer, obviously, is yes. Why, Will? Because platinum combines the weight and value of a precious metal with the corrosion resistance of stainless steel. A commonly used platinum blend is “950,” which is 95% platinum and 5% alloy. It won’t tarnish or wear — but it will look awesome on the wrist.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Jumbo Ultra Thin
Gerald Genta designed the Royal Oak’s unique octagonal shape during the height of the quartz crisis, when mechanical watches were getting shellacked by newer, more precise, less expensive quartz movements. The Royal Oak’s success proved that watch lovers would pay high-end prices for stainless steel — now, people love it in precious metals. The case and bracelet are actually made of titanium, with a the bracelet's links and that iconic bezel in platinum. It’s the perfect combination of an ultralight material and a heavy one, both of which are tough and incredibly badass looking.
Case Material: Titanium (950 platinum bezel)
Movement: Calibre 2121 automatic
Diameter: 39mm
Price: $34,800
F.P. Journe Chronometre Souverain
Francoise-Paul Journe is part of an exclusive club of the best watchmakers in the world. He is a watchmaker’s watchmaker, and his company doesn’t concern itself much with clever marketing — he just makes incredible watches, and his Chronometre Souverain line is the crème de la crème. In platinum, with a white gold dial, it’s just about perfect. And since we’re gold-digging anyway, we should note: the movement is set in 18k rose gold, too.
Case Material: Platinum
Movement: Calibre 1304 handwound
Diameter: 40mm
Price: ~$36,500
Grand Seiko Elegance 60th Anniversary SBGW257
Grand Seiko is the revered high-end arm of Seiko. Since 1960, they’ve been making beautiful timepieces, each one touched only by a master watchmaker. In 2020, the brand marked the 60th anniversary of the first Grand Seiko with a recreation of that very watch rendered in several different precious metal versions — including this one in platinum. It’s so simplistic and beautiful that if you didn’t know what you were looking at, you might miss its specialness.
Case Material: 950 platinum
Movement: 9S64 handwound
Diameter: 38mm
Price: $38,000
Urwerk UR-210 “Royal Hawk”
Two Swiss watchmaking industry veterans, Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei, started URWERK in 1997, and have been making avant garde haute horlogerie creations since. The UR-210 “Royal Hawk” features one of the duo’s innovative “satellite” displays, a three-pronged central assembly that rotates around the dial. Its case is made from a combination of platinum and titanium, with black DLC coating, which seems to negate the whole precious metal thing — but take one look and you’ll see this is all about defying expectations, anyway.
Case Material: Titanium and platinum
Movement: UR 7.10 self-winding
Diameter: 43.8mm x 53.6mm x 17.8mm
Price: $130,000
