What is 14K Gold-Biggs mean?

Answer 1

I'm betting this is a watch--"Biggs" is the company who made the actual metal case: the other parts were all made by different people. Biggs doesn't seem to be in business anymore, but they did good work.

As this is the exact way this is phrased on my own watch, I'm also betting that it's also marked "Hamilton," who are the people who made the movement inside the

watch: the bit with the gears that makes it run.

14K = 14 karats. Karats are a percentage of the pure metal; in this case, there is 58.5% pure gold in this object. The rest of it is alloyed with another metal, most usually copper. This isn't to cheap out, necessarily; pure gold (24 k) is actually the softest metal and thus very easy to damage.

(To give an example of 14K durability, my watch was made in 1942, and after nearly 70 years, it is still fairly undamaged. It's got the usual very fine scratches that almost all gold picks up except when brand new--and which can be polished out--but no "real" nicks. And this watch has seen some rough times.)