If you impact your watch hard enough to shatter the sapphire you're going to likely have more problems than just a broken crystal anyway. Sapphire still remains king for me.
@@yourface4248 I don’t wear bracelets or rings, I didn’t even mention them. I have 35 years experience on the tools as a tradesman so I probably don’t need your silly advice.
@@alex.hleconte6007 Sapphire glass (real ones that are used in watches not some phone glass trying to be sapphire) scratches above 9 on the mohs scale.
It's not a linear scale though. Look at this link for a better understanding of the scale. Although diamond is a 10 and sapphire is a 9, diamond is many times harder than sapphire. Being in the watch repair field and having some jewelry repair experience I've been able to observe this as well. 4cs.gia.edu/en-us/blog/more-than-mohs-scale-gem-durability/
It is really hard to shatter glass when it lies flat on a surface. I think the result will differ when there is a space between the glass and a surface. This is also the case with watches
Also hitting it with a large surface will cause little damage while hitting it with a metal punch will break it. A fast and hard hit with a small surface area does the job.
Agreed. The only reason to go with anything softer is job requirements like NASA requiring "crystal" that doesn't shatter into billion little pieces. Like another person said, if you crack sapphire then the watch itself is most likely highly damaged as well from the impact.
I find that I bump my wrist against doors/tables/walls more often than I'd like to admit. So it's nice to know that my sapphire crystal isn't gonna get scratched. These days, even if I'm buying a relatively entry-level watch, a lack of sapphire is a deal-breaker.
@@goku445 it can still scratch though when hitting something harder and dragging/scraping slightly.. and like was said in the video- you dont really have to worry too much about impact resistance, unless your expecting to drop it from 4 feet onto concrete or having large objects fall onto you- you would be tough pressed to shatter either mineral or sapphire in most use cases
@@notme756 true. I bump my gshock all the time. I have it since almost 2 years and it's only got recently a slight scratch barely visible. It is mineral. That's good enough to me.
Exactly what you just described is what caused my watch with a mineral crystal to chip.. a bump on a door frame.. now I'm wondering if I should replace it with acrylic or Sapphire
A few years back I was walking down a sidewalk and my wrist hit a light pole, along the bezel perpendicular to the sapphire. I didn't even hit it particularly hard yet crystal shattered. My take away was that sapphire can withstand a hard knock straight on but hit it on the side and it's toast.
Great video just a quick comment regarding the shattering of sapphire. The way you tested is not fare. In a watch, the glass is not fully supported as it is when you place it on top of the table. In a watch the glasses are support only at the edges and when you hit it in the middle the sapphire is more prone to shatter because is more rigid so it can not contract to dissipate the energy like the plastic. When you support all the sapphire surface you are not forming any specific area of stress as the energy is dissipated equally to the table.
just noticed that at the end of every sentence Ben does this thing with his lips, like he pressess them together. and it's always in the same way!! it doesn't bother me or anything but I just can't unsee it now :D anyone else see that?
If the Chinese can use sapphire on £50 watches there is no excuse for Seiko still using 'hardlex' on £300 models. I considered the Seiko Presage until I discovered it had hardlex, unlike its discontinued Japanese Domestic Market predecessor the SARB.
I was about to comment exactly the same thing. You've already done it for me. A piece of sapphire really isn't that expensive and should be in all watched over £150.
Seiko will never use it on their lower end watches! That's one of the reasons Seiko blows. My San Martin eats any Seiko in its price range and even the more expensive ones...
I've retired more watches because scratches to the glass affected the appearance of the dial than any other reason. When I started buying better, mechanical watches, sapphire became the choice, and I have not been disappointed.
You missed a very important aspect about acrylic. It isn't just a way to cut costs, some expensive watches have it deliberately because it can be shaped any way you like very thin and offers much better visibility of the dial. It's the reason your Junkers Bauhaus and the Max Bill have acrylic. Omega offers the speedmaster with a choice of acrylic and sapphire to this day.
A sapphire crystal can be had for about $15. However the average AR coating can cause an unsightly blue hue so sapphire is not necessarily always a preferred choice. Sapphire with a high quality clear AR is obviously desirable.
Of all 3 types I prefer acrylic, of all my watches it is the material that looks more transparent, and without even needing a coating, and doesn't show fingerprints. Sapphire looks really close, especially when it has anti reflective coating, but only when you just cleaned it, the fingerprints really pop with that material making it in real world generally less clear. It also weights a lot more, it's pretty noticeable the difference on the wrist! Plain old glass to me seems the worst, it cuts away contrast more than the other two materials, but anyway I have to admit that the thick hardlex crystal seiko uses on their divers looks really good, really close to sapphire in transparency but less susceptible to fingerprints.
Great summary! I would like to add that the transparency of certain mineral glasses can vary greatly depending upon what constitutes the makeup of the glass alloy. For example: the Seiko Hardlex crystals (even the old ones dating back to the 70's-like on the SEIKO Sports series) and the Citizen PROMASTER series of eco drive watches, have very optically transparent "crystals". I don't know about other watch brands. The example you show for sure looks to have a tinge of green, just as you say it looks like ordinary window glass-maybe hardened of course but you could check by examining it under polarized light. Certainly as a diver using a mineral crystal is a better choice as it is tougher than the Sapphire. I guess besides that, wearing a watch diving the watch case itself is going to get banged up for sure-unless you only dive in a bath tub LOL. To help increase shatter resistance and certainly scratch resistance, i installed some custom made (I made them) watch crystal protectors made from high quality tablet screen protectors. i've had two of these installed; one for over a year (on a SEIKO Prospex 200m diver-baby Tuna actually) and one just for the last 3 months on Citizen BN 0176-08E 300m diver, I've accidentally hit the crystal several times and I'm certain the protectors have saved me either breaking the crystal and or definitely preventing scratches. The upshot is, when the protector gets manky you can simply remove it and put another one onto the still brand new watch crystal LOL. I also reviewed these watches and how to install such protectors.
Very nice video. Just a slight comment, you can “polish” mineral crystal, it is just not as easy as with acrylic to polish but the result is pretty good when restoring a watch ! no need to change it. This is quite useful for hard to find domed mineral crystal.
You can of course polish the scratches out of anything other than diamond - which doesn't scratch. If any watch crystal scratches then those scratches can also be polished out. A Dremel with a buffing wheel and a small tube of diamond paste will make short work of it. Do not be a slave to the scratch.
I have Seiko Samurai with hardlex which I own since 2018 (bought it for around 300$) and it's one of my daily watches and so far I haven't scratched it. There's no doubt that sapphire is superior but depending on the model and of course the price it isn't that much of a deal breaker for me (especially if that particular watch model is on a big sale like -30-50% of the retail price) and if I really want to I can always buy a sapphire crystal for around 40$ if that's really necessary. The rest of my watches have sapphire crystals and I also have Vostok Amphibia (that has acrylic crystal), which I recently bought and also wear from time to time with no issues so far. I think it all depends on what are you doing while wearing your watch. A friend of mine is a car mechanic and he's wearing a Victorinox with sapphire and although the crystal looks like new, the rest of the watch looks like hell so there's that to.
Yea I would be wearing either no watch, a gshock, or another cheap durable watch doing work like that. I had a gshock when I was in the military, as work was not easy on gear, or me for that matter. I take off my watch if I'm doing yard work and swap it out for a casio of some type. I usually wear a seiko, citizen, or micro brand. Entry level stuff. But I still don't want to be buying one every year or two. The casio is 20-30 bucks. I can afford to grab a new one every year.
I wholeheartedly agree with sapphire on higher end watches except for the Speedmaster. Ive had the sapphire and hesalite version, and the hesalite version, aesthetically, looks sooooo much better on it.
I like domed crystal watches. So, I prefere Acrylic or domed Saphire. I try to avoid Mineral glass at all because it's usually just flat and you can't remove scratches.
@@appalachiangunman9589 I have had a mineral crystal watch for 11 years and 0 scratches so far. Ironically, the only crystal on a watch I’ve damaged is sapphire.
Ben, well done on this video. Thanks for the research and detail. One thing I might add. While you’re spot on about selecting watches with sapphire if given the choice, remember it’s so easy to have your mineral crystal replaced. ...or even take your watch hobby to the next level and learn to to do yourself. I had a scratched Hardlex crystal replaced and it made a 90’s watch brand new again. I’m looking forward to your next vid.
Yeah, a sapphire watch crystal has never cracked on my wrist. But I have scratched, chipped, and cracked mineral glass. Although, My son shattered my Seamaster’s sapphire crystal on a tile floor 😖
I'm an oddball on this matter. It's either acrylic or sapphire for me. I scratched and smashed several mineral crystals on watches, to me they're the worst of both worlds. However I never managed to smash acrylic and buffing out scratches is a matter of just a few minutes. Perfect for beater watches you don't have to care about.
I've never actually managed to scratch any of my mineral crystal watches. I'm an office worker, mind you, so I'm not doing anything crazy with my watches. The cases and bracelets get worn out from general banging against tables and door frames but the crystals look pristine to my eyes. Once I banged an affordable Casio pretty hard against a lamp post. The case received a rather deep groove but the glass was just fine.
Acrylic will let more frequencies of light through than almost any material, more than glass even. The molding process can change some of its light properties, though it can be machined and polished from sheet stock as well. Also, the stock used for non-molding purposes (the ones who held up) are of a better grade than those used for molding. I have found some anti-reflective coating on sapphire at some angles can make it look almost cloudy
Most comments here, people dont have much clue. Acrylic can only be used on certain watch cases, they cant be friction fit with plastic gaskets( like sapphire or Mineral) so that alreasy limits what watches they can be fitted on. Mineral or Sapphire ( sapphire being far worse) tend to be very reflective of light, depending on the mineral glass and quality - it's far better than Sapphire. Sapphire must have an AR coating or else it's basically unreadable in the light. Sapphire is extremely expensive to replace or buy, especially if its a domed or boxed glass. Flat sapphire, however, not so expensive to produce. Mineral glass is quite cheap(Domed or flat)and you can get away with not having an AR coating. Acrylic is Super cheap and the glass can be buffered out like new- however as mentioned, only fits certain cases, often with retainer rings. A good mineral glass is cheap with decent transparency- Sapphire is expensive, reflective, but only diamond's will kill it- Acrylic is super transparent, doesn't need any AR and can be buffed out, however modern watch case fitment is limited.
Not that I’m a a Invicta fan, however after looking into there FlameFusion Crystal it seems to be a nice alternative. I fix watches etc and they seem to have a good glass
Not much mention of IR coatings. I have seen several mid-range watches like Omega and Tag have the coating on sapphire crystals and although the crystal doesn’t scratch, you can see hairline scratches on the surface where the IR coating has been scratched. Rolex doesn’t have the coating so there are no tiny scratches but their crystal is VERY reflective.
Sapphire crystal is the most resistant to scratches and least resistant to impact, acrylic is the exact opposite. Mineral glass can scratch or crack fairly easily, is relatively expensive to replace and quite difficult to polish. In my experience mineral glass combines the worst aspects of the other 2 options.
This is kind of an oversemplification, and underestimation of mineral glass. While it is easier to scratch then sapphire, acrylic can get scratched by just looking at it. I have a swatch that gets cloudy by just being worn, due to contact with sleeves.
Thx for the video I always wanted to know. For my personal experience I have had a Seiko with Hardex for 7 years and another Seiko with Sappier much older - with Sapphire (I think - its a bit on the shinny side) about 25 years old. Both I wear regular, both no issues, no scratches. I have, dear I say, a preference for the Hardex - does not have the shinny reflective - but I am just a novice.
acrylic for me. they're easy to make look new again, and if they get too bad they're easy to replace. not to mention, I could've bought good flat sapphire for the same price as my aggressive double dome acrylic and fyi diamond selectors don't test hardness, they test thermal conductivity.
You can buy protectors (like with phones and smart watches). You can buy specific Casio models, plastic or glass.
3 года назад
You should actually put the glasses into a watch when trying to shatter them, as laying them on a flat surface gives them support. When in a watch, the impact will push against the glass and allow that force to be distributed along the edge through the center. This stress could result in a crack, or breaking of the glass. (Edit:) I've just now seen the other guys' comment 😂
I've 17 watches in a range of €10 to €400. Wear each of these watches regularly. Havn't achieved to catch any glass on my watches from Casio G-Shock Square (shouldn't scratch at all, right?) to Timex, Junkers, to Seiko. So what's the fuss all about? Hardlex is totally fine IMHO. Sapphire is a bit more expensive.
I have a sapphire Citezen rn, haved it for 8 months now, really good, you can see clearly through it, unlike negative digital watches like that ca53wf, it has plastic screen, so you can't really see through it, thah watch would be much better if it haved sapphire glass. And yes, it has no backlights.
The most informative, most telling part of your video was when you tried to shatter the sapphire glass. I also never had any problems with sapphire glass on my watches.
Thanks for your video ! I recently bought an used Cartier Santos on sale, its almos 20 years old and the crystal is impecable, looks as translucent and clear like the first day it left the store. If the vendor had told me the crystal was a new replacement Id have believed him. Thanks again for your informative video !
acrylic crystal has a cool property in that it can be easily polished back to like-new condition with the same sort of sandpaper and rubbing compound you use to restore car headlight lenses. so minor scuffs and scratches from daily beater service can be polished off when they start to interfere with your ability to read it.
Hesalite is a cell cast cross linked acrylic. It features better chemical resistance than normal acrylic. In the 70s it was state of the art for watch cristals. Today it is not used often anymore. However, some people prefer its warm touch.
You talked quite a bit about cost. I think I would have liked to hear about the relative cost of each. Is sapphire twice as expenseive as acrylic? Ten times? 100 times?
I have several Hardlex Seiko, couple Casio G-Shock, and Citizen mineral Crystal. They all scratch no matter how I baby them. The mineral Crystal on Casio is so reflective I had to stick a matt protective film on the glass in order to be able to tell the time
Something I always have to chime in on about gorilla glass. It's useless once it's scratched. You've removed the ion impregnation prestress. It's critical to keep a phone screen protector on your phone at all times to retain the impact resistance it is rated for. Once your screen has a scratched all the strength is gone.
Acrylic isn't bad. It doesn't reflect light, and it is by far the toughest when it comes to impact resistance. Perfect for divers and other beaters, I think. Smaller scratches can be buffed out with toothpaste.
I personally don't mind mineral glass (Seiko's hardlex I like even more), especially on a dive watch, it's a little better at not shattering if it get's bashed against something than Sapphire is, which in a dive watch is good, better to get your crystal scratched but still intact so you can replace it when it's dry than suffer a shattered crystal at depth and have a much more expensive repair for water damage.
ya but i mean... do you actually dive with a mechanical/quartz watch? ive never heard of anyone in this day and age doing that, myself and 99% of others use dive computers with more functionality
@@notme756 I sometimes do and many others as well. It is good idea to have a diver's watch with a depth meter as a back up: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WCAn4c2eTqA.html
Thanks, I just recently got a Hamilton day date pilot - like in interstellar, and am so worried I’ll scratch it lol. It’s sapphire so I guess I just have to accept it will do it’s job.
One thing I noticed, my vintage Timexes and new Vostoks acrylics never get smudges, while my Seikos and watches with generic mineral crystals get so much smudges that it almost form an OCD. I don't own Sapphire so I can't comment.
I'm a newbie to watch thing, last year I bought a discontinued Marathon Nav and well overall it's excellent but I do with it had sapphire over acrylic crystal as with how easily it scratched up. Of course the updated version has a sapphire crystal hence the reason what I got was discontinued.
i noticed that mineral glass can be hard to read while free diving, it becomes mirror like unless looked at straight on from 8" - 15" away from your face, i don't find it a big deal or anything, just something to note. i don't know if this is just mineral, but i don't remember it happening with my old $15 acrylic watch, and i don't own any sapphire.
nice review, subscribed. as you say, it all depends on the watch and intended use.. there are no bad choices here, imo. now, if you drop a watch on a hard surface, you are likely to damage the innards as well as the crystal, so be careful with a watch you care about. my old wind up rolex from the seventies was dropped and put a crack in the crystal and now you cannot set the time--the whole crown can be pulled out of the watch--but if you wait for the time to match what's on the watch, you can wind and wear!
Question: how do they get the sapphire glass to be clear in the lab? Rather than blue. Also, when it comes to impact resistance in my personal experience, Ive shattered two mineral crystals. One was a timex expidition I bought specifically for a camping trip and the glass broke on that trip so unfortunately I only got to enjoy that nice little field watch once and has been sitting in a drawer ever since being that its cheaper to replace the whole watch than just the glass. The other mineral crystal I shattered was an eco-drive that took a light fall off the bathroom counter and produced a clam shapped chip at the edge. Mineral crystal: 0 for 2. My Hamilton Khaki King with sapphire crystal however has been my daily wear for 3 years now and no scratches and no chips. It is domed though which may add to its strength? I dont know, but seems to be strong stuff and I know its been knocked around a bit (not to mention withstanding some nights where I had a bit too much to drink!). Sapphire: 1 in 0.
For me a watch having sapphire crystal a pretty important. Unless its on a cheaper watch with a domed crystal. Then I can forgive it not having sapphire, as domed sapphire crystal is more expensive. I wont buy Seikos due to the majority of them not having sapphire, as well as hollow end links. Especially when you can get better made homages for less money.
My seiko 5 15J1 mineral glass shattered when fell to floor , replaced it with mineral then broke again when it was hit by door handle. I took it to repair they used acrylic.. somehow I prefer it... not a scratch ( also I m more careful) and I like the dome like effect
It just answered my question: its a no. I just had a deep scratch on my TechnoMarine black medusa, owned by invicta and it has ff crystal. Basically, ff of invicta sucks.
Design matters too. I had a digital watch with plastic crystal, that never scratched, because it had raised edge around the plastic. I had a watch, with bubbled out glass Crystal. The bubbled out glass took a beating, and eventually broke.
