It might depend on the brand. I'm not really into jewlery and watches, but i think some brands might be worth more than their weight in gold???
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No, your wrong, AFAIK brand has nothing to do when it comes to jewelry but it's weight and material used on it (this is how it is here in my country of residence).
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I'm a bit out of my league here, because i know nothing about jewlery. This is why i googled a bit:
http://www.ebay.com/gds/How-Much-Gold-Is-Really-In-A-Rolex-Watch-/10000000001632748/g.htmlapparently, according to this gent's calculations, there is about $1000 worth of material in a rolex president, the retail value is little over $26.000
Do you mean, that when somebody came to you with a rolex president with certificate of authority, certified by a second jewler you totally trust, you'd offer him a $700/$800 loan with his $26k watch as collateral?
The collateral the OP is offering is also 18 carat (like the rolex president). This means it's value COULD be less than $1000 (if it's an unknown brand, and it doesn't contain a lot of 18 carat gold). But if he's trying to give a prestigious watch as collateral, it might be worth up to $26k (or even more... I know rolex is expensive, but i heared there are even more expensive watches out there)
http://www.watchtime.com/blog/million-dollar-watches/