All Gold Everything: A Few Of Our Favorite 18k Gold Watches

Headed back to the office? It’s time to impress your colleagues with a new watch. And what better way to do that than solid gold? Here, we’ve gathered a few of our top picks for solid gold watches at Crown & Caliber – check out our full selection right here.

Rolex Yacht-Master Ref. 116655

The Yacht-Master is Rolex’s youngest, flashiest sport watch, situated along brand icons like the Submariner, the GMT-Master, and the Explorer. First introduced in 1992, the Yacht-Master is easily recognizable for its bezel execution, a graduated 60-minute, bidirectional design with raised numerals in relief. As Rolex is known to do, we’ve gradually seen incremental updates to the Yacht-Master’s design language. One of our recent favorites is this solid-rose gold example with a black dial and red accents.

OMEGA De Ville Prestige Ref. 4678.31.02

Slim, refined, and a surprising value proposition, the De Ville Prestige offers an attractive and modern twist on the collection’s mid-century design language. The De Ville Prestige line is one of the most underrated within OMEGA’s entire catalog. The collection is filled with dress watches, many of which are more affordably minded, and is OMEGA’s platform for traditional watch design. Inside the watch is caliber 2500, a movement that is of particular significance for OMEGA. This was the first movement that OMEGA placed the Co-Axial escapement in, after purchasing the blueprint from George Daniels in 1999. Caliber 2500 is COSC-certified as a chronometer and offers a respectable 48 hours of running autonomy. While the caliber 2500 was once found consistently across all of OMEGA’s various collections, the De Ville Prestige is now one of the few families where the movement is still available. We don’t know what the future holds for the caliber 2500, but this rock-solid workhorse movement should be noteworthy to anyone interested in how modern watchmaking has evolved in recent history – you simply cannot tell the story of OMEGA today without the caliber 2500.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Ref. 15400OR.OO.1220OR.02

The pride and joy of watch collections around the world, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak is the definitive luxury sport watch. We won’t bore you with all the details surrounding its genesis at the hands of Gérald Genta in 1972, but if there’s one thing to take away from its origin, it’s this: Often imitated, never duplicated, there’s nothing quite like a Royal Oak on the wrist. It’s even fair to say that the popularity of the Royal Oak – distributed equally among enthusiast circles and the Jet Set – kickstarted the sport watch with integrated bracelet trend that’s taken over 21st century watch design. This 18k rose gold example is simply sublime.

Patek Philippe Calatrava Ref. 3919J

The Patek Philippe Calatrava remains one of the most classic watch designs ever created. Since its introduction in 1932 with the ref. 96, this watch has been the epitome of elegance with spot-on proportionate features. The term “Calatrava” is now used by collectors to describe almost any time-only circular wristwatch, but these Pateks are the only watches truly deserving of the name. The variants of the Calatrava are many within the world of Patek collecting with some of the more well-known references being the ref. 2508, ref. 2526, ref. 565, and, of course, the original ref. 96. This example with small seconds from the 1990s is an all-time classic with its slim dimensions and legible dial with black Roman numerals.