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Apple Watch Series 4 Black SS Back Scratches!

ProtoMaster22

ProtoMaster22

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 26, 2018
12
2
Arizona
I Pre-Ordered A New Apple Watch Series 4 And With All The New Features, Decided To Opt For The Black Stainless Steel Model With The Milanese Loop. I Had Just Received It On Saturday The 22nd And Opened It Put It On My Wrist And Headed Out The Door, As I Had A Dinner To Get To. While Out I Was Very Carful To Make Sure I Didn’t Leave A Mark On It Or Hit It Against Anything And Proceeded To Handle My New Toy Like It Was Fragile. After Coming Home I Proceeded To Use A Soft Microfiber Cloth To Get All The Smudges/Finger Prints Off. While Cleaning Everything Off I Noticed Some Micro Scratches On The Bottom Of The Watch. Mind You I Was Out For Maybe Two Hours And Never Took The Watch Off Until I Was Home And When I Proceeded To Remove It I Made Sure The Band Didn’t Touch Anything Being Metal As I Always Have With All My Watches. I Paid $850+ Because I Wanted Piece Of Mind From Such Issues And Have Had Older Apple Watches Iv Never Seen This Before, So I Contacted Apple And They Told Me To Bring It In The Store To Have It Replaced. So I Take It To The Apple Store To Exchange It, When I Arrived I Thought I Got Lucky Because I Was Approached By A Senior Apple Genius Adviser/MGR And After Explaining To Her What Was Going On And I Had Only Worn It For Less Than Two Hours And Hadn’t Touched It Since, She Proceeded To Bring Another Apple Watch Over That Had Simular Micro Scratches On It To Convence Me This Was Normal. Still Being Skeptical I Went And Looked The Bottoms Of Every Watch On The Floor That The Customers Could Try On, Not Seeing A Single Scratch On Any Of Them And I Showed This To Her. I Was Than Told If I Wanted To Have The Watch Replaced Or Repaired I Would Then Need To Setup A Genius Bar Appointment And Even Then They Don’t Carry Replacements Instore I Had Brought The Box With Everything Inside It. She Than Said She Wouldnt Replace It Because Of Such Things, Even If They Would Repair/Replace It, My Watch Would Have To Be Sent To There Depot To Be Repaired Or Replaced. I Had Only Just Had The Watch For A Few Days At This Point Only Have Had Worn The Watch Once And It Being Scratched On The Back Where It Cant Even Be Hit Against Anything! On Top Of If It Supposibly Being Made Out Of A Strong Sapphire Glass And Ceramic. This Just Doesn’t Seem Right To Me, So I Wanted To Check With You Guys And Gals, Do Any Of You Have Any Micro Scratches On The Bottom Of You’re New Watches Or Am I Just Unlucky?
 

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ProtoMaster22 said:
I Pre-Ordered A New Apple Watch Series 4 And With All The New Features, Decided To Opt For The Black Stainless Steel Model With The Milanese Loop. I Had Just Received It On Saturday The 22nd And Opened It Put It On My Wrist And Headed Out The Door, As I Had A Dinner To Get To. While Out I Was Very Carful To Make Sure I Didn’t Leave A Mark On It Or Hit It Against Anything And Proceeded To Handle My New Toy Like It Was Fragile. After Coming Home I Proceeded To Use A Soft Microfiber Cloth To Get All The Smudges/Finger Prints Off. While Cleaning Everything Off I Noticed Some Micro Scratches On The Bottom Of The Watch. Mind You I Was Out For Maybe Two Hours And Never Took The Watch Off Until I Was Home And When I Proceeded To Remove It I Made Sure The Band Didn’t Touch Anything Being Metal As I Always Have With All My Watches. I Paid $850+ Because I Wanted Piece Of Mind From Such Issues And Have Had Older Apple Watches Iv Never Seen This Before, So I Contacted Apple And They Told Me To Bring It In The Store To Have It Replaced. So I Take It To The Apple Store To Exchange It, When I Arrived I Thought I Got Lucky Because I Was Approached By A Senior Apple Genius Adviser/MGR And After Explaining To Her What Was Going On And I Had Only Worn It For Less Than Two Hours And Hadn’t Touched It Since, She Proceeded To Bring Another Apple Watch Over That Had Simular Micro Scratches On It To Convence Me This Was Normal. Still Being Skeptical I Went And Looked The Bottoms Of Every Watch On The Floor That The Customers Could Try On, Not Seeing A Single Scratch On Any Of Them And I Showed This To Her. I Was Than Told If I Wanted To Have The Watch Replaced Or Repaired I Would Then Need To Setup A Genius Bar Appointment And Even Then They Don’t Carry Replacements Instore I Had Brought The Box With Everything Inside It. She Than Said She Wouldnt Replace It Because Of Such Things, Even If They Would Repair/Replace It, My Watch Would Have To Be Sent To There Depot To Be Repaired Or Replaced. I Had Only Just Had The Watch For A Few Days At This Point Only Have Had Worn The Watch Once And It Being Scratched On The Back Where It Cant Even Be Hit Against Anything! On Top Of If It Supposibly Being Made Out Of A Strong Sapphire Glass And Ceramic. This Just Doesn’t Seem Right To Me, So I Wanted To Check With You Guys And Gals, Do Any Of You Have Any Micro Scratches On The Bottom Of You’re New Watches Or Am I Just Unlucky?
Click to expand...

I can tell you exactly what happened. The black space Milanese loop came in contact with the back of the watch somehow, which scratched it. The black milanese has a DLC, which is short for ‘diamond like carbon coating’, which can scratch the black stainless watch as it did in your situation. That’s the one band you have to be very careful of not Not to allow touching the watch and you have to lay on its side. This is not Apples problem, you caused it unintentionally and did not realize it.
 
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Looking at the scratches and how close they are together, there is little doubt the Milanese band scratched the back of the watch. There have been several threads on this band scratching watches. I tried the band but returned it for another Leather Loop.
 
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Relentless Power said:
I can tell you exactly what happened. The black space Milanese loop came in contact with the back of the watch somehow, which scratched it. The black milanese has a DLC, which is short for ‘diamond like carbon coating’, which can scratch the black stainless watch as it did in your situation. That’s the one band you have to be very careful of not Not to allow touching the watch and you have to lay on its side. This is not Apples problem, you caused it unintentionally and did not realize it.
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Not everybody will know that the "Milanese Loop" would scratch at the back of the watch, well that's really pity i must say. I hope you guys will sort out with Apple.
 
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MacWorld78 said:
Not everybody will know that the "Milanese Loop" would scratch at the back of the watch, well that's really pity i must say. I hope you guys will sort out with Apple.
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It’s actually more common to know about this on a tech forum then it is in the real world for those who do own the Milanese loop. But yes, it very well can scratch the Apple Watch and has to many others as well. That’s why am sharing this now, that way for those who read this, *use caution*.
 
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Relentless Power said:
It’s actually more common to know about this on a tech forum then it is in the real world for those who do own the Milanese loop. But yes, it very well can scratch the Apple Watch and has to many others as well. That’s why am sharing this now, that way for those who read this, *use caution*.
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Yes you are right, apple should state that somewhere in the package for the Milanese loop "Warning: this strap could scratch your watch due diamond like carbon coating....."
 
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Hey thanks for the reply guys/gals:) it’s not my first watch or my first Milanese loop and none of my other watches are scratched like this even on my sport watches “all with the same bands and I’m very adamant about taking care of my things. Even if the loop some how managed to scratch the back, which I have no idea how that would have happened seeing that I never set it down or let it touch. It’s hard to get in the photos but the scratches are at all four corners not just the three spots shown “hard to get good photos with the reflectiveness of the SS” . Am I the only one that thinks that Apple probably shouldn’t be selling a loop that actually causes damage to its own product?
 
Sounds like they're going to make it difficult for you. I think you'd be better off calling the 800 number and making a complaint there. Due to limited availability, especially for the SBSS, I think you're going to be stuck without a watch either way if they do agree to replace it.

All of that said I know how much people love perfection and I get it when you're paying $800+ for a gadget but in all seriousness, how often are you going to be looking at the back of the watch? I had forgotten how much it had changed until I saw the OP. For all I know mine could be scratched up worse than yours.

Oh and off topic, I have to know. Did you purposefully capitalize every word in that post or how did that happen?
 
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Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't that entire back plate supposed to be ceramic now? I could easily see that happening with the old back plates Apple used, but with the new ceramic ones, I don't see how it would get scratched that bad, unless you were intentionally doing it.
 
Is an issue just with the space black milanese loop or does the silver Milanese loop capable of scratching the back of the watch too?
 
bradley8795 said:
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't that entire back plate supposed to be ceramic now? I could easily see that happening with the old back plates Apple used, but with the new ceramic ones, I don't see how it would get scratched that bad, unless you were intentionally doing it.
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The circle is metal, as that's what's used for the ECG to complete the circuit
 
Knowlege Bomb said:
Oh and off topic, I have to know. Did you purposefully capitalize every word in that post or how did that happen?
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Haha Yeah It’s A Habit Of Mine.:)
You are correct in saying how often am I going to see the bottom of the watch, I guess it’s mainly just my OCD and the fact I don’t like the idea of it being scratched and paying so much when I’m pretty sure I didn’t do it. But it seems like a lot of people are starting to come forward about their new series 4 scratching already so I don’t seem to be alone here.
 
ProtoMaster22 said:
Haha Yeah It’s A Habit Of Mine.:)
You are correct in saying how often am I going to see the bottom of the watch, I guess it’s mainly just my OCD and the fact I don’t like the idea of it being scratched and paying so much when I’m pretty sure I didn’t do it. But it seems like a lot of people are starting to come forward about their new series 4 scratching already so I don’t seem to be alone here.
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Not really. You have to expect that a watch can scratch when you wear it on a daily basis and how we are flailing our wrist at times. The biggest thing that happened to you (And others with this band), is you inadvertently didn’t know that the Milanese loop would damage the watch if it came in contact with it. My suggestion would be to accept for what it is, at least you don’t have to see the scratches, as they are underneath the watch and not on your display.
 
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i ordered it with the milanaise.. and now i'm scared of it :eek:
was only planning to wear it for special occasions though. will just have to be very carefull i guess...
 
Nozuka said:
i ordered it with the milanaise.. and now i'm scared of it :eek:
was only planning to wear it for special occasions though. will just have to be very carefull i guess...
Click to expand...

Just make sure you lay the Apple Watch on its side versus flat with the band attached, you won’t have any issues. I wouldn’t purposely avoid purchasing the Milanese loop just because of scratches, you just need to be aware and conscious of how you set it down.
 
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nattK said:
Is an issue just with the space black milanese loop or does the silver Milanese loop capable of scratching the back of the watch too?
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Just black.

The black coating - beautiful and hardwearing as it is - acts like fine sandpaper. If you have one, try rubbing it against a cheap drinking glass. It’ll even scratch the sapphire front glass of the watch. I learned that the hard way.
 
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