I am now confused. Another person from 'watchnet' was informing me that the same watch with a leather band would sell between $300-800 (barring Condition obviously). So from this new information (which may be more accurate, I dont know) I gather that it would be more lucrative to sell the watch for scrap, melting the gold and get more money? This all seems very wrong.

The total weight of the watch is over 70grams meaning that even taking off 10 to 15 grams for the mechanism's, what your saying is $5-7 per gram for the 18ct gold.