Wasting time, harden gold sovereign (7)
I believe the answer is:
emperor
'sovereign' is the definition.
(emperor is a type of sovereign ruler)
'wasting time harden gold' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'gold' could be 'or' ('or' is the heraldic name for gold) and 'or' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for emperor that I've seen before include "Powerful ruler" , "Sovereign - ruler" , "Kaiser" , "Monarch" , "He rules over several states" .)