The downside of hardening treatment

Interesting, looks like faults in the hardening caused some brittleness!?

Never seen or heard of it before. But the hardening process affects the surface layer of the metal as I understand, so I guess it’s possible to have shearing of that and layers below. Would take a really hard hit though.

Is the 356 Tigemented? Sinn doesn't do this to all of its watches.

That’s a beautiful watch. Even with the damage. I’m not sure how hard Sinns hardened watches are. In general the harder steel is, the more brittle it is. However it depends on the alloy.

Looks to me like a used watch was actually used….older SINN watches, specifically their bracelets (clasps in particular), are notorious for looking like they were beat to hell (which they probably were, all the SINN owners I know wear the crap out of them and love them)…in truth, for me this adds to the charm but others want them to look like you just took the plastic off.

I've yet to encounter this in the wild. But being a metallurgical engineer by education I know that hardness comes at a cost: toughness. The harder the metal, the greater the brittleness. The tougher (and more ductile) the metal, the the softer (prone to easy scratches) it gets. Maybe the alloy in that Sinn is too brittle?

I do believe that specific watch is not hardened, but the hardness treatments are not immune to damage. I think the general sentiment is that they do enough to prevent scratches that the rarity of a severe impact that will dent or chip the surface, which would damage regular stainless too, is just accepted as a possibility. I think damasko's ice hardening is supposed to deal with some of that a bit better because it's hardened all the way through, which makes it a bit better of a foundation for the surface or coatings to withstand major impacts. Although I'm sure you can damage damaskos as well.

Buenas, muy buena pieza. No se bien que acero sería. Pero mayor dureza más quebradizo se hacia contra golpes. No ha de se forjar la dureza sino algo parecido a pvd. Una capa fina para recubrir el metal, esta con el tiempo se cae y es más propenso a que se llegue al metal

Siertas marcas en las piezas quedan bien, al fin y al cabo son echas para usarlas en diferentes lugares, y para cada lugar uso un modelo diferente. Pero como digo son solo marcas de vida... A mi solo me molesta hasta que el humor se me trastorna si se parte el vidrio, odio🔥

This isn’t a tegimented sinn just a well used stainless steel. While it’s possible to damage a tegimented watch you would have to hit it very hard indeed to scratch them. the surface is hardened but the rest remains the same so not brittle at all. They mostly do submarine steel or titanium they will look like they are bead blasted. Any that have polish or brushed finish will not be tegimented and will be standard stainless

This isn’t a hardened steel it’s standard 316l

Furthering your idea, surface treatments are only skin-deep; which is an argument against them. Inconsistencies in the case material would cause them to heat and cool inconsistently as well. Odd deformation and delamination-like artifacts could occur.