Dear Jeff,

Interesting topic. However it might be a bit of an unfamiliar topic for many watch-collectors.

As a goldsmith I have contact with gold every day. With the material and also with the value of it. The price of gold is a bit of a taboo for a lot of people, especially for people earning their money on the stockmarket and banks. When I hear people talking about gold I always try to keep my mouth shut as I have a strong emotional feeling towards that material, ofcourse I might not be the most neutral person to share my thoughts on this subject.

The price that has to be paid these days for gold does not surprise me at all. Over the last three years a big majority of the people I spoke and were related to a bank, stock market or a financial institute were very sceptic about the goldprice...the majority said that it was just an enormous bubble that would soon explode, the goldprice would drop significantly. I had my thoughts. Today's situation is very difficult to estimate, however I still think the goldprice has an big potential to increase significantly. But as outlined before, nobody knows where it will end. $2500/ounce would not be very surprising to me either, it can go fast or slow but I'm pretty confident the goldprice will reach that in the (near) future.

Again China. World's biggest population with extremely fast growing demands, not healthy. When we know that the "working-class" people there are also about to start to consume meat and luxury food products too, things will become very expensive due to big demand. Thesame for gold. Imagine that only every Chinese woman would receive a nice golden ring, let's say of only 3grams 18 karat (which allows the construction of a simple and light ring), that would provoke a huge demand for the precious metal. As an aside....please keep in mind the Silver price is also soon to be exploding. At only a fraction of the price of gold, this precious metal is still undervalued and will gain in value siginificantly. Because gold is getting unaffordable for most people, people turn their choice to Silver jewelry...hence the price increase. However Silver has a disadvantage that there are taxes involved whereas gold is very easy to transact. A lot of things are happening in the precious metal markets and as outlined before, very difficult to make estimates...

So about the 1158 Carrera case ;-)

Carrera case weight in 18kt gold: 48gr.
Carrera bracelet weight in 18kt gold: 73gr.

Today, 10th October 2011, goldprice is around 39.400 euro ($53400) per kilo. Now for the re-calculation towards 18kt gold there is a difference in practice and in theory. And then there are also the manufacturing costs. I will make the calculation in theory, in practice and finally also mention what the actual cost would be if you would buy such a case and bracelet thus also including the manufaturing costs (but not yet the profit for the retailer).

Pure theoretically this would mean;
Carrera case weight in 18kt gold: 48gr Would cost 1420 euro ($1930)
Carrera bracelet weight in 18kt gold: 73gr Would cost 2160 euro ($2930)

In practise it would be;
Carrera case weight in 18kt gold: 48gr Would cost 1540 euro ($2090)
Carrera bracelet weight in 18kt gold: 73gr Would cost 2343 euro ($3178)

And then finally an estimate of the actual costprice when one would purchase it new at present in a shop;
Carrera case weight in 18kt gold: 48gr Would cost 1850 euro ($2510)
Carrera bracelet weight in 18kt gold: 73gr Would cost 2774 euro ($3663)

So as one can see, there are some noticable differences. Also the actual costprice for manufacturing do not include the profit for the retailer yet...so you can easily double those prices to get an idea...

Also worth knowing is that when turning in old jewelry or scrap gold which is 18kt (750/1000) the value is not actually stated at 18kt but slightly less. In fact 18kt gold being 750 parts pure gold on a total of 1000....what you get for scrap 18kt scrap gold is only 720 parts on 1000. thus 3% loss.

I hope this might be usefull for some of you, however this contribution may also raise a lot of additional questions too ;-)

Take care,
Abel.

: Is this a bit optimistic, or is the value of the 1158 Carrera
: now tracking the value of an ounce of gold, at a 10-to-1 ratio?

:
: http://www.chrono24.com/en/heuer/carrera-gold-1158chn--id1823718.htm?dosearch=true&manufacturerIds=279&picnum=0&query=heuer&searchResultIndex=0&sortorder=5&tab=details&urlSubpath=%2Fheuer%2Findex.htm

: For those who want to do the match, the Carrera 1158 case (without
: the movement) weighs approximately 48 grams; 48 grams is
: approximately 1.69 ounces; being 18 karat, rather than 24 karat,
: the pure gold content would be approximately 1.27 ounces, so the
: "melt value" at $1,700 per ounce would be
: approximately $2,160. I am assuming that this is not how such
: computations should be done, but will hope that someone else can
: provide better information.

: Abel, are you there? What is the value of the gold content of a
: Carrera 1158? And what about the bracelet, at 73 grams?

: Jeff