Let’s talk Crystals

I just like sapphire, particularly the blue hue, wherever possible I will replace non sapphire on my watches to sapphire.

All of these crystals are sufficient though for most activities except when doing tough tasks, hard manual work does increase the damage risk.

I think people get a little too hung up on sapphire crystal. I know people who would flat out refuse a watch without it, even if every other aspect of the watch was "perfect".

I know Lorier receive a lot of flak for their use of hesalite on their watches, but I've always appreciated their stance.

https://www.lorierwatches.com/en-gb/pages/crystal

Personally it's not a deal-breaker for me (and a Lorier is next on my must-have list!).

Personally I don't buy unless sapphire

Considering how easy and cheap of an operation it is to swap a damaged crystal, either at home or at your local watchmaker, it is a bit ridiculous how adamant some people are about sapphire.

If a watch you like doesn't come with sapphire, just replace the mineral/hardlex a couple years down the road if it's badly damaged and upgrade to sapphire at this moment.

If I buy a watch with mineral crystal and it's not damaged then I won't upgrade to the sapphire until it does get damaged. Acrylic crystal is big minus for me.

Once you get a deep scratch no amount of polywatch will get it out and what is even worse, you buy a new one, replace it and get it scratched up again the next day...😑

I've owned a few mineral crystal watches in the past and I always manage to scratch them up rather quickly. So now I'll only buy sapphire. My only exception is G Shock, where the bezel sticks up to protect the crystal.

You like that blue tinge? I guess it might be tolerable on a white dial but I find it seriously detracts from black.

The important part is that plastic is cheaper to make in cool shapes where grinding would cost a fortune. It even shows in the thread graphic, where the acrylic crystal has shape and character while the others look like microscope slides or petri dishes..

I’m a sapphire devotee. One of the reasons that I stopped wearing my Citizen on any kind of regular basis was that the mineral crystal got scratched pretty easily. There are no sapphire replacements available, because Citizen used an odd size for the crystal (Thanks, Citizen!).

I personally prefer mineral glass variants. Less reflections without tint, and more shatter-resistant than sapphire. Also easily available in all kinds of domed versions.

Sure, I scratched up some over the years, but the replacement cost is low.

If I was offered the choice I'd pick Acrylic every day of the week and twice on Sunday. You can see the warmth of it in the comparison picture. This picture wouldn't be possible with sapphire:

Of course we're never given a choice, so unless you reject a watch based on a relatively cheap component it's not worth worrying about.

Informative!

I think sapphire production process has been commoditized and cost brought way down to the point where being considered a luxury is a bit dated. It’s to the benefit of makers to prolong this idea as way to justify higher price tier, yet you only have to look at how common sapphire crystal is in the 2-digit priced watches on AliExpress, and that purchase price still has to cover the cost of all of the other components.

I prefer sapphire, with acrylic as a second choice.

I hate mineral glass, as it's the worst of both (easily scratches or chips but it's difficult to repair)

Sapphire is my choice mainly because i dont like getting scratches and polishing them out. But even sapphire can shatter so a degree of care is still needed...

I must live really fast and loose, but I've had multiple sapphire crystals shattered, which has made it my last favorite choice. I think that clarity is beautiful, but I'm too ham fisted!

Water ingress from a shattered crystal killing a movement vs. replacing a super scratched crystal once in back in civilization is an easy choice for me!

I’ve cracked and totally destroyed all three of them -acrylic - mineral - and sapphire — but I’ve never scratched sapphire - go figure — experience. But I’ve destroyed all three of them (dropped watches on concrete).

I prefer sapphire. There’s a few great acrylic types I love, the domed acrylics on my Timex Marlin and Seiko Cocktail Time are super cool with their shape. The acrylic on my Seiko Turtle doesn’t look nearly as nice as sapphire though. I’m not opposed to acrylic, and polishing scratches off when needed.

Prefer acrylic as I've learned more.

You can polish it back with ease, and realistically any impact that would shatter acrylic, is also going to damage the other choices to. Not too mention harming the movement, your wrist, etc.

I have watches with both. I wear watches with both. If I could choose, I'd take acrylic. (Can't wait to try out the Wolbrook Skindiver II Pro, acrylic, anti-mag, and shock protection!)

Another interesting thing I've found is, acrylic doesn't trap oils/fluids as readily. From fingerprints, to other viscous fluids. Could be my imagination, but my Holton Pro needs a good lens cloth wipedown at the end of the day, my acrylics only if it was a very dusty environ. (And that's cuz, small, dense participate will create some swirls if rubbed all over the lens. But you should rinse or wipe off any watch, especially braceleted ones anyway)

Except for its higher scratch resistance, sapphire is inferior to acrylic in any other parameter. It's less clear and more reflective, it's more fragile, it's harder to shape and it's more expensive.

And it's not really scratch proof.

So that means my Aragon is a LUXURY watch🧐🤔🤪

Sometimes distortion adds appeal

In my personal opinion

I prefer sapphire overall but hardlex makes a lot sense in a field watch.

Hardlex scratches more easily than sapphire, but its a lot more durable in drops/bumps.

Sapphire just shatters like a vase.

As long as it isn’t broken, it really doesn’t bother me what material the Crystal is made from!

It’s only there to protect the dial at the end of the day… they will all break/scratch/chip or shatter in any extreme scenario.

Very informative, thank you for sharing!