Mugged off with Mineral or Hardlex

I really dont have an issue with mineral/hardlex crystal. I prefer it for the clarity and in some watches making few crystal shapes more cost friendly. I rather have good glass than some cheaply made sapphire with high reflectivity and hue disrupting the legibility. I have few watches with hardlex that I have owned for few years and I haven't managed to scratch.

Whilst I prefer sapphire, I'd still get one with mineral glass or hardlex/acrylic, especially if it were vintage.

They both have pro’s and con’s. I don’t feel mugged off if it’s not sapphire.

In 30+ years I've never scratched or broken a hardlex crystal....

I've found myself going the other direction of late. If it has acrylic/Hesalite I'm more interested 😂.

A watchmaker once said that Seiko and some other manufacturers used hardlex for warranty issues, cheaper to replace crystals on warranty when the original was also hardlex, didn’t really make sense to me but he was also a Seiko ad. as well as owner of a watch repair service including warranty for AP.

I believe sapphire to be the worst option personally.

The common myth that sapphire is scratch proof is just that: a myth. It's better to call it scratch resistant and it's true that it's more resistant to scratches than Hardlex or mineral glass, but while the Hardlex on my SNA411 is still looking like new, I did manage to scratch a sapphire crystal on another watch. YMMV of course.

Scratch resistance is pretty much the only advantage that sapphire has over glass. IIRC it's less resistant to impact, it's less transparent and harder to form into complex shapes.

I'll keep buying watches mineral and acrylic crystals.

That aside, I'm looking forward to picking up the new Rally Diver on the left.

Wow interesting!, thanks for the feedback guys, I must say I was surprised by some comments, I am glad we are all different, it does look like not many agree with my thinking and are quite happy or even love a mineral lens, it has not changed my mind but cool to hear a different take.

Two of my little Seiko 5s has suffered horrendous falls and the crystals were completely unscathed.