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Day 4: Sapphire Scratched!

A

ARTHURMCK

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 12, 2011
9
0
Not sure how this happened but as I was driving home today I noticed this decently sized scratch on my 42mm stainless steel sapphire display. Didn't expect this to happen 4 days into having the watch since I payed for the display that's suppose to be more scratch resistant and i've been extra careful with not letting the screen touch anything... What a bummer

RLzo0Th.jpg
 
That's a bummer! Contact 1800MYAPPLE and see if this could be a defect since it's advertised as the second strongest to diamond and see what they tell you. Best of luck!
 
ARTHURMCK said:
Not sure how this happened but as I was driving home today I noticed this decently sized scratch on my 42mm stainless steel sapphire display. Didn't expect this to happen 4 days into having the watch since I payed for the display that's suppose to be more scratch resistant and i've been extra careful with not letting the screen touch anything... What a bummer
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You're sure it's a scratch and not a smudge?
 
rhyme said:
You're sure it's a scratch and not a smudge?
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That's what it looked like at first.. But i've used a microfiber cloth on it and even scrubbed the heck out of it in the sink... It doesn't come out
 
xban said:
Apple provide 1 yr of free coverage. Get it replaced
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Unless you purchased AppleCare+, the standard warranty does NOT cover accidental damage, and you will be charged the out of warranty (OOW) fee. (Former Apple employee here)
 
You could take it to the Apple Store and have them take a look. Better now than ever as it seems they are laxed on their replacement policy with this newly released product.
 
Photography said:
Unless you purchased AppleCare+, the standard warranty does NOT cover accidental damage, and you will be charged the out of warranty (OOW) fee. (Former Apple employee here)
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True, however Apple may choose to do an EFFA capture to assess the scratch. I would make a GB appointment and call AppleCare. I'm pretty sure this early in the game they will take it in. The hard part will be waiting for the replacement. But, do it soon.
Apple employee here as well...
 
Day 4: Sapphire Scratched!

MacUser4_20 said:
True, however Apple may choose to do an EFFA capture to assess the scratch. I would make a GB appointment and call AppleCare. I'm pretty sure this early in the game they will take it in. The hard part will be waiting for the replacement. But, do it soon.

Apple employee here as well...
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Very true! EFFA (early field failure analysis, a program that Apple uses at new product launches to discover issues with new products early on) would constitute a replacement. I don't know for sure if EFFA for the Apple watch is still open, but it should likely be.
 
Thanks for the tips.. I scheduled an appointment tomorrow at 630pm. I'll let you know how it turns out
 
Can you feel the scratch? If it's not deep, might just be the coating. Still a bummer.
 
lagwagon said:
You can pretty much tell by the image that it's just a scuff on the oleophobic coating. The mark is too wide and it's a white-ish colour.
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So what's the point of having a scratch resistant sapphire display if its covered in oleophobic coating that scratches anyway? I feel like that defeats the purpose...
 
ARTHURMCK said:
So what's the point of having a scratch resistant sapphire display if its covered in oleophobic coating that scratches anyway? I feel like that defeats the purpose...
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Because the sapphire itself won't scratch. The coating is for fingerprints. Had that been a sport model it may have actually gouged the ionX glass.

There's a guide somewhere on how to take that coating off the sapphire glass on the watches.
 
ARTHURMCK said:
So what's the point of having a scratch resistant sapphire display if its covered in oleophobic coating that scratches anyway? I feel like that defeats the purpose...
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Reduces fingerprints and oil smudges. The coating is not permanent. It wears away over time. The more you touch the display, the more the 'scratch' will fade.

It also happens to be more visible than on conventional watches because the display is black when powered off, versus a clear crystal with a reflective watch face underneath. So it's not that the Watch is more prone to scratches, but that the nature of the digital display makes them more apparent.

Unfortunately, there's not much more that can be done to prevent scratches other than designing a display crystal out of diamond.
 
It baffles me that I've seen some reports of people with the Sport model who say they've bumped the watch into things and have no visible damage, while others find damage on both the Sport and the Stainless but have no recollection of how it happened.

I've got both types on order and need to decide which one to keep.
 
lagwagon said:
..[snip]..Had that been a sport model it may have actually gouged the ionX glass..[snip]..
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Agreed. As someone who has scratched many minerals in mineralogy labs, that does not look like a scratch in the crystal. way too smooth. If you took a hand lens to it, a scratch will be more irregular, thinner, and crevasse like. That is, IMHO, definitely a smudge of some kind. A hard rub up against paint or plaster, for example, will also really mar a surface making it hard to come off. Or it may be in the coating, but not a scratch. Again, IMHO, of course.
 
Steel wool will buff that right out. Ask the forum member that tried it on his watch ;)
 
LxTxNx said:
That's a bummer! Contact 1800MYAPPLE and see if this could be a defect since it's advertised as the second strongest to diamond and see what they tell you. Best of luck!
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Unfortunately diamonds are everywhere. Almost any woman in the U.S. who is engaged has one on their finger.
 
xraydoc said:
Reduces fingerprints and oil smudges. The coating is not permanent. It wears away over time. The more you touch the display, the more the 'scratch' will fade.

It also happens to be more visible than on conventional watches because the display is black when powered off, versus a clear crystal with a reflective watch face underneath. So it's not that the Watch is more prone to scratches, but that the nature of the digital display makes them more apparent.

Unfortunately, there's not much more that can be done to prevent scratches other than designing a display crystal out of diamond.
Click to expand...

It seems simply not putting an oleophobic coating on the sapphire would solve the problem, no? Am I missing something?
 
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