What type of watch glass do you choose?

I thought, that sapphire crystal is always the best choice.

But on my watch-journey I found out, that there are a lot of reasonable alternatives.

Which one do you choose?

If you had the choice, of course.

575 votes ·
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Mineral glass is hugely underrated. The difference in clarity compared to a reflective piece of sapphire can be quite significant.

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Depends on the watch

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A watch can acquire scratches; a bracelet can be scuffed; a dial can fade or discolour. These are ‘patina’ and show a watch has “lived a life”.

But woe betide anyone who gets even the slightest mark on their crystal.

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Acrylic for vintage-esque watches; sapphire for everything else.

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I own watches with each of the three type of glass you offer in your poll and have no real preference ... they all do their respective jobs very well ...

I do however love the warm feel of acrylic ... that and its "vintage" vibes ... if I were ever to own an actual Speedmaster, it'd have to be the one with the acrylic crystal!

Outside of that, they're all good AFAIAC! 👍

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I never had a problem with any type but since sapphire is the most scratch resistant I picked it

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English_archer

A watch can acquire scratches; a bracelet can be scuffed; a dial can fade or discolour. These are ‘patina’ and show a watch has “lived a life”.

But woe betide anyone who gets even the slightest mark on their crystal.

My first 'real' watch has a sapphire crystal. Once I dropped it. Now the case has a scratch, but the crystal is alright. 👍

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English_archer

A watch can acquire scratches; a bracelet can be scuffed; a dial can fade or discolour. These are ‘patina’ and show a watch has “lived a life”.

But woe betide anyone who gets even the slightest mark on their crystal.

And if it ever needs any work or care beyond the most surface level issue, they will dump that watch like a shitty romantic partner

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I’ve come to like acrylic for its durability with impacts.

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Savage61

I own watches with each of the three type of glass you offer in your poll and have no real preference ... they all do their respective jobs very well ...

I do however love the warm feel of acrylic ... that and its "vintage" vibes ... if I were ever to own an actual Speedmaster, it'd have to be the one with the acrylic crystal!

Outside of that, they're all good AFAIAC! 👍

I'm totally with you.

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Never had a problem with Hardlex in 30 years, but still choose sapphire 🙄🤣

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There are examples of both that I really like.

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I like box or domed sapphire too, get the vintage look with scratch resistance of sapphire

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The picture for other is just my humor😂

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Flat sapphire with no AR coating.

Perfectly clear unless directly reflecttin the light.

Scratching minimally visible

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I love the Milgauss green tinted crystal. I would love to see other colors as well. Just a subtle tint.

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Sapphire but with a very good AR!

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I wore a Seiko my loving spouse got me for a month and couldn’t read the time because of the scratches. This was about 10 years ago when I was doing a lot of hands on work around ships but I just can get behind anything other than sapphire now.

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Sapphire as I am very clumsy and tend to whack my wrists into everything that sticks out. Table corners, door handles you name it.

Sapphire seems to deal best with it until it breaks that is. 😅

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ludwick

Mineral glass is hugely underrated. The difference in clarity compared to a reflective piece of sapphire can be quite significant.

I was going to ask what the benefit of Mineral is.

I have acrylic and I can see the difference against sapphire. Honestly can’t tell with the few mineral ones I’ve had over the years.

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I prefer sapphire but depending on the price of the watch something else is fine. I ordered acrylic to replace a crystal on a watch I have. I looked at a sapphire crystal but the watch was cheap

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Why is it a watch retains its value when its all original, or all original, except for the crystal? Is there any other part of the watch that its ok to change and people look the other way? The acronym i came up with is, AOE.All original except for..... AOE B-1 All original except for the band,but one peice of the band is orignal,the bickle. Duane Black Diamond, WA. 98010

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Sapphire > Acrylic > Mineral

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Depends. Enough watches which can’t get sapphire (domed for example).

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MaterialGuy

Flat sapphire with no AR coating.

Perfectly clear unless directly reflecttin the light.

Scratching minimally visible

Yes I am describing a Rolex. But I so think it works

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not.the.rock

Why is it a watch retains its value when its all original, or all original, except for the crystal? Is there any other part of the watch that its ok to change and people look the other way? The acronym i came up with is, AOE.All original except for..... AOE B-1 All original except for the band,but one peice of the band is orignal,the bickle. Duane Black Diamond, WA. 98010

Crystals are considered consumable

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I actually really like the acrylic crystals on some watches, really brings out a beautiful 3D, ethereal effect

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ludwick

Mineral glass is hugely underrated. The difference in clarity compared to a reflective piece of sapphire can be quite significant.

Yes, except that this clarity quickly declines with the micro scratches it takes. And it’s hard to polish well.

Sapphire would remain constant.

At least, acrylic would be easy to polish.

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I have acrylic and sapphire crystals. My 1601 DJ has an original acrylic crystal. I can count on one hand the number of scratches I’ve had on it and it’s been mine since 1971! Is a sapphire one more durable, I guess. But when I had a scratch on the 1601, a little polyglass rectified the problem instantly. Can’t do that with sapphire.