Pardon my ignorance on this issue. I have the chance to buy a Carrera 73655 ; everything is fine except the gold-plating, which is worn. It's on sale many miles from me, so I can't examine it before purchase. I know from the forum that its reference number 73655 is correct for a Carrera with 20 microns gold-plating, but what is the underlying metal? The Carrera section of the Master Reference Table says "the cases being either stainless steel, gold-plated or 18 karat gold" , which implies that the gold-plated ones are NOT stainless steel ; but it doesn't say what's underneath the gold-plated ones.

If it is steel, that should polish back to a nice clean case at fairly low cost ; but if it is brass, or some other base metal, I would need to find someone who can strip and replate it, which would be pretty costly.

BOB