Is apple schizophrenic about the durability of the apple watch?

[Enrico77]

One day I looked at the watch on the wrist of a colleague of mine and I said "Nice, is it new?" It didn't have the slightest scratch and it looked shiny. “They gave it to me when I was 18”. She was 40 years old and the watch was a Rado.

Well, I think that most people when speaking about durability, they speak about scratch resistance; personally I have never broken any watch in my life, and in any case if I break any aluminium sports watch on my wrist probably my biggest concern would be that I haven't broken my body, given the force of the impact it needs (no need to mention steel or titanium!). Hammering an Apple Watch like in some videos it is stupid, unless you think to hammering your wrist.

However, I have scratched many watches and often a good reason to change one was that there were too many scratches.

My first criterion for choosing an Apple Watch (non Ultra) is therefore scratch resistance… and it is a more and more difficult choice.

The hardest material is ceramic (like Rado), but it was discontinued for Apple Watch. DLC coating is a solution too, but it has been discontinued too.

Stainless steel is harder than aluminium… in theory… but in practice with the mirror finish even a micrometer scratch is visibile, a lot more than aluminium version (and by the way anodization in aluminium make it harder).

The solution? The brushed stainless steel! By the way, I have an old iPhone 4, the stainless steel band looks newer (less visibile scratches) than my shiny iPhone 13…

But there is no brushed stainless steel option… there was brushed titanium one (by the way titanium is softer than stainless steel), but even this one has been discontinued by Apple.

So, what? Is it better to choose aluminium one? Well… it has more scratches prone glass instead of sapphire screen!

So Apple gives you two choices: do you prefers to scratch case? Get a steel Apple Watch! Do you prefers to scratch display? Buy an aluminium Apple Watch! But no option if you don’t want scratch neither case neither display, like some watches that I have, even at a fraction of Apple Watch cost but in brushed steel or brushed titanium and sapphire crystal.

Finally I chosen the silver steel one, because at least I can polish it. However, after only a week (of home/office use, not extreme sport one) I have already some really small scratches, barely visibile but it is only one week! It is really sad 😞

 

[russell_314]

You’re forgetting one issue. Sure a mechanical watch will still be just as good 22 or even 100 years later. An Apple Watch even if they made the screen out of something hard as diamond and with a platinum case will have a blank screen and be completely obsolete.

Even optimistically, you’re going to get six years life out of the electronics. Today that would be a Series 2 Apple Watch.

 

[bodonnell202]

Can anyone comment as to whether the PVD coating they now use on the "Graphite" stainless steel is prone to scratching? I have a Series 5 space black stainless steel which I understand has a more durable DLC coating (and honestly at almost 3 years old it still looks new, unlike my previous Series 3 aluminum Apple Watch which definitely had some scratches on both the face and body after a couple years). I guess this may be another good reason to hold onto my Series 5 for as long as possible.

 

[Enrico77]

It is a long story… In reality the problem is not the hardware, that could last very long time and virtually without wearing (or a lot less than a mechanical gear); when I was young, I had a 64k microcomputer… I tried it today and it is still working, with its green phosphor screen, after 40 years!

The problem is that there is no maintenance offered and no support after 5 years or so.

By the way, all traditional watch companies recommend to replace seals each 2 years or so and a (low) paying service is offered for this; it is necessary to keep water resistance. Well, no service of this kind is offered by Apple; on Apple website is simply written that water resistance “could decrease” over time.

Oh, well, it could decrease! And what is the solution? To buy a brand new Apple Watch Ultra every two years to continue my extreme scuba diving activity? Or maybe to subscribe Apple Care, use the watch until the water has destroyed it (instead of doing PREVENTIVE maintenance) ?

Apple cares so much to environment (smaller packaging, no more chargers, recycled material…) but for an Watch kept 8 years instead of 2 pollutes a lot less that to remove chargers or headphones from iPhone package.

But anyway my concern was a different one in this post… because first scratches comes after one week, not one year, so even with short duration is it a problem. And the sad thing is that is explicitly chosen by Apple, it is not related to production cost or technology.

 

[risenphoenixkai]

Can anyone comment as to whether the PVD coating they now use on the "Graphite" stainless steel is prone to scratching?

Yes, it is. My graphite Series 6 ended up with one faint scratch on the case in the bottom-left corner about six months after I got it. No idea how it got there.

Not long after the Series 6 came out, people noticed that the graphite milanese loop was causing scratches on the graphite Watch casing.

In terms of durability, PVD is better than nothing at all (ie, plain stainless steel) but way worse than DLC.

 

[Enrico77]

Can anyone comment as to whether the PVD coating they now use on the "Graphite" stainless steel is prone to scratching? I have a Series 5 space black stainless steel which I understand has a more durable DLC coating (and honestly at almost 3 years old it still looks new, unlike my previous Series 3 aluminum Apple Watch which definitely had some scratches on both the face and body after a couple years). I guess this may be another good reason to hold onto my Series 5 for as long as possible.

For sure it is less durable than DLC, and moreover it is glossy. No way, any glossy object is extremely scratch prone. The only way to have glossy objects looking always as new is to use a material EXTREMELY scratch resistant. Frankly speaking I wondering if Apple intentionally chosen to use softer material. As Apple Watches don’t innovate a lot years after year neither in features neither in design, some users could decide to don’t replace it so often; but another source of motivation to replace it could be too much scratches, as well high battery replacement cost and no service proposed to restore seals and water resistance as I said above

 

[russell_314]

It is a long story… In reality the problem is not the hardware, that could last very long time and virtually without wearing (or a lot less than a mechanical gear); when I was young, I had a 64k microcomputer… I tried it today and it is still working, with its green phosphor screen, after 40 years!

The problem is that there is no maintenance offered and no support after 5 years or so.

It’s because it’s no longer useful for practical purposes after that period of time.

I absolutely love antiques and old stuff don’t get me wrong but Apple or any electronics company isn’t going to support outdated hardware and you won’t be able to use it for any kind of modern purpose. Sure your 64K computer is working, but can you reply to this post on it. Can you do a quick Google search on it or check your email with it?

In theory you could keep your Apple Watch going for decades if you had an iPhone from the same time frame to pair it with, but it would likely not have any connectivity. That would mean most functions wouldn’t work 😢

That’s where a normal watch will always win because it does one basic thing that never changes. Showing the time a thousand years ago is still the same today.

 

[MarkX]

I don’t understand this obsession that people have with things needing to look “new” after owning them for a period of time.

You can’t really enjoy things for their intended purpose if all you’re concerned with is how they look and not how they function.

 

[russell_314]

I don’t understand this obsession that people have with things needing to look “new” after owning them for a period of time.

You can’t really enjoy things for their intended purpose if all you’re concerned with is how they look and not how they function.

Well, because a watch is something you wear as a clothing item. Most people don’t want to wear a worn out shirt so they replace them every so often. It’s a little bit more expensive when it comes to watches.

I guess it’s a balance between using it and not destroying it

 

[MarkX]

Well, because a watch is something you wear as a clothing item. Most people don’t want to wear a worn out shirt so they replace them every so often. It’s a little bit more expensive when it comes to watches.

I guess it’s a balance between using it and not destroying it

I don’t wear an Apple Watch Ultra as a clothing item. I wear it mainly for Trail running and hiking I just don’t take it off after.

I look after my stuff but not to the point where I’m concerned it’ll pick up a scratch or two.

 

[Farrellcollie]

I have busted quite a few watch crystals just from accidentally banging my arm into something before I got the apple watch. I have had both stainless and aluminum apple watches and haven't broken the crystals on any of them. As far as I know the bodies were fine but I don't really look for scratches and I don't care that much if the body of the watch gets them - I think of a watch more as a tool than constant fashion statement. If I need to be dressed up and fancy, I wear my grandmother's watch that I inherited. I do care about scratches on the screen so I put a screen protector on usually

 

[flashflood101]

Tell us that you don't understand the meaning of the word schizophrenic without telling us that you don't understand the meaning of the word schizophrenic.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Rado uses a unique ceramic bonding method so it’s that process you’re paying for mostly. Sadly we’ve been getting tech quality for decades now being it’s more about the internals and subpar externals than vice versa. Give me an iPhone with a two year old chip but a titanium body or properly ceramic coated like Rado and I’ll pay 2022 prices. Go ahead and add an actual sapphire screen coating while we’re at it.

 

[ian87w]

I didn't know about Rado, so I Googled it and it's roughly a $2000 watch with the simplest one still around $900... LOL. Even the Apple Watch Ultra is just $800.
Imo the key is the sapphire crystal watch face. This is what keeps traditional watches scratch free for ages. I think the stainless steel model do use sapphire, so that's an option. As for the stainless steel finish, well, even traditional watches I've seen are not pristine perfect on their bodies. But people tend to focus on the watch face.

 

[T5BRICK]

Most high end watches are stainless. Sometimes they get scratched. Most people move on.

My Space Black stainless series 4 doesn’t seem to have any scratches, but I haven’t looked that close because I don’t actually care.

 

[Pakaku]

If the body gets scratched, just say it's a Brushed Aluminum finish. Nobody will know the difference.

 

[Enrico77]

Well, most people don’t care about scratches… Me, I simply said: you have two choice: polished or brushed stainless steel. Same technology, same material, same price. One easily scratches, the other don’t.

In Apple world, you can see for e.g. in the iPhone 4/5 (brushed) vs. 12/13/14. The first one is brushed, the second one is polished.

Me I prefers the first one than the shiny second one. Period.

By the way, it is really simply because Apple prefers the second one: because it looks like a jewelry, because displayed at Apple Store is more eye-catching.

Personally, if I could chose, for any kind of object, I prefers the one that is less eye-catching the first day but that after 1 year looks like the first day that the opposite.

 

[reeneebob]

I don’t upgrade my Apple Watch the way I upgrade phones. I went from a series 0 to a series 2 to a series 4, and I’ve always bought the aluminum because I couldn’t justify the price of the others. I wasn’t intending on buying a new Apple Watch but…

I have several very, very deep scratches in the glass on my S4. So deep that I’m pretty sure if I put a little pressure on it the glass would give. I was toying around with getting a Series 8, but I found a Series 7 stainless steel in graphite with the Milanese loop on eBay. It was an open box special…it just got delivered, had activated no issue, and this thing is PRISTINE. the Milanese loop box hasn’t even been opened, and the cord is factory wrapped still. It looks like they returned it after just taking the wrap off the watch body and not even turning it on. And I got it for $600 CDN. It was too good a deal to pass up, and it will be nice having the sapphire crystal instead of the ion glass.

I’ve always had lots of scratches etc on my Apple Watches. I don’t baby them by any means and I hate screen protectors. It’s a watch, they get banged around. I’m hoping the SS is a bit tougher though.