Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Question about stainless steel models
- Thread starter eclipse01
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Easier? No idea but you can polish the scratches out. Space black and graphite you just have to live with.
… only that it’s really difficult to scratch the Space Black and Graphite variants to begin with.
@OP: Pure stainless probably scratches even easier than the anodized aluminum watches, let alone the coated higher-end models.
If you say so. I had a space black and I scuffed it and it was noticeable. No idea what I did.
Of course it is not indestructible. But you must have been really unlucky with yours.
I had a Series 4 SSSB and sold it after two years of duty in pristine condition two years ago. The buyer also did not manage to get any scratch into it until this day, despite both of us giving it a hard time with accidentally banging into walls, rails, door-knobs and whatnot.
And the Graphite series 6 I’m wearing for the last two years also doesn’t show a single scratch, despite its lesser PVD coating (in comparison to the DLC coating of the SpaceBlack) and its intimate knowledge of all kinds of hard surfaces and corners.
When you can polish the watch in less than five minutes to a literally perfect finish, what difference does it make? The silver/natural versions are easier to scratch than the DLC/PVD colored versions, but unlike the colored watches, they can be restored to perfect condition in about five minutes.
Here is a picture of my brushed-finish Natural Ti series 7 - I polished it to a perfect mirror finish, removing all of the brush marks (scratches):
And here's a stainless steel link band that I bought in 2015. I would love to see a seven-year-old space grey (or black or whatever they call it) stainless steel link band that looks this good after seven years of use. The silver band is easier to scratch, but it's the only one that can be restored to perfect condition in less than five minutes, using a pen eraser and a polishing cloth.
Maintenance effort!
Even if it’s “only” 5 minutes, it’s a recurring task. And between polishing sessions, the look gradually deteriorates, until it is restored again.
Thus I prefer prevention over restauration.
Yeah, I suppose that 5 minutes has added up over the past seven+ years, to an hour or so. In seven years. To have a pristine Apple Watch every day, for seven years, has taken an hour of my time. 🤔 For me, the ability to completely erase accidental damage is far more important than the ability to prevent the majority of it - not all damage, but most of it. Because we've all seen pictures of DLC that has been scratched or damaged, with absolutely no way to fix it.
But, to each his own. I get that a lot of people aren't willing to spend any time whatsoever to maintain their gadgets, and that's cool, too. 👍🏻
Hard to imagine that polishing about twice a year would result in a truly pristine Watch every day. Either you are a very careful type of guy or we have a different understanding of “pristine”
But as you say: Everyone is different and that’s perfectly okay!
A graphite eraser (the gray eraser for pens/ink) and I usually wipe it down for a few seconds after that, with a Blitz Polishing Cloth, just for a little extra shine.
There are tons of posts on how much more scratch resistant the graphite SS is and what not but the silver SS I had for three years was scratched up just as quick as my current graphite SS that's a few months old.. Haven't knocked it into anything yet though.