LOL I was there. It had to be sent out to be replaced. The concrete DID scratch my sapphire glass.
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Sapphire screen SCRATCHED
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LOL I was there. It had to be sent out to be replaced. The concrete DID scratch my sapphire glass.
You need to re-read the post. You don't know for sure that diamond didn't flake off and got embedded in the concrete when work was done on it.
I don't need to re-read anything. Regardless of what you think you know about the hardness of sapphire, the Internet is filled with story after story of sapphire watch faces getting scratched by concrete. And it would have had to have been a helluva lot of diamond that flaked off to account for the multitude of scratches on my watch face. And if diamond is so hard, why are you so willing to believe it's flaking off, but stubbornly denying that it's scratching watch faces?
It doesn't even have to be limited to that. Silicon carbide is normally added to concrete to make it sparkly, and it's one of the extremely few materials that are hard enough to scratch sapphire. You do not know if this is the case and are making a blanket assumption.
I'll stick with science rather than a blanket assumption, or believe everything I read on the Internet (including your claim).
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If silicon carbide is added to concrete regularly, then it's part of what most people consider "concrete." So I stand by my claim that concrete scratched my watch face. You don't have to believe me, but I know I didn't fall into a diamond sidewalk. It was concrete.
Re-read what I wrote. I said it's normally added to concrete to make it sparkly. Most concretes aren't the sparkly kind.
Diamond breaks off the saw blades normally. That is why there are replacement diamond tip blades.
Also, minerals have natural cleavage.
If you've ever played with or seen muscovite, you'll remember that it comes apart in very thin sheets.
That is cleavage.
Diamond does this too, but obviously not nearly as easily as muscovite.
I do believe that you fell onto the concrete, I'm just saying it alone is not what scratched your watch.
Dude, you're missing the point JayLenochiniMac is making. Concrete doesn't normally have silicon carbide added. Sidewalks are not usually "sparkly". You tend to find treatments like this at hotels or resorts - not sidewalks in the suburbs and certainly not home foundations or parking garages.
If concrete scratched your stainless steel Apple Watch, then it had particulates in it that are not normally found in concrete. Particulates harder than Sapphire (which is a 9 on the Mohs scale).
Examples of particulates that could scratch your watch are listed in the tables here (anything over a 9): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohs_scale_of_mineral_hardness
I didn't miss any point. What I'm saying is that when what most people consider "concrete" contains enough particulates hard enough to scratch a sapphire watch face, then it's pointless to split hairs and say, "Concrete can't scratch sapphire," because the sidewalk I fell on, in anyone's summation, would just be concrete. It's not particularly sparkly or unique. It's just concrete. So therefore, my watch face was scratched by what most people would look at and call concrete.
I own many watches with sapphire glass, they do scratch and yes in contact of everyday materials, not just diamonds. I constantly hear this marketing and laugh. Whats different about normal watch sapphire is that it does not have a coating on it so it can be buffed out at your local watch repair shop. I've had all of mine buffed at different times and they look like new when done. It could just be the coating scratched. There are on these forums methods to take it off. I would try that then have it buffed if the scratches are deeper then the coating.
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In many situations, these "scratches" are actually residues scraped off from what the sapphire crystal came into contact with and they can look/feel so real that you're convinced they're actually scratches. That's why they can be easily buffed as you're merely removing these residues. Many people get the cause and effect wrong.
It can be more problematic on the AW as it has an oleophobic coating to boot, but people have removed scratches within the oleophobic coating by removing the coating.
in some situations yes but my Jeweler has buffed deep scratches out of an antique Movado
It can be more problematic on the AW as it has an oleophobic coating to boot, but people have removed scratches within the oleophobic coating by removing the coating.[/QUOTE]
You are correct the the majority of a scratch can be residue, thats why when the are buffed they use a cleaner that takes a lot of it out, the if you run you fingernail and it goes into the surface it's a scratch. It is then then buffed with a high power buffing wheel and polished out similar to buffing a scratch out of a car. To me that is the great thing about sapphire it can be repaired. it's really the same with most car scratches you clean residue down to get the real scratch which is usually much smaller than you think. Sapphire does scratch, not easily, but it does.
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Nobody is saying it's impossible to scratch sapphire. We've already mentioned a few things that are harder than sapphire (diamond, silicon carbide, etc.) and hence can scratch it. If you agree that in cases where the majority of a scratch is residue, then a majority of it is not actually a scratch in the sapphire crystal. All I'm saying is the poster doesn't know for sure that he came into 100% concrete (just because it looks like normal concrete doesn't mean it's not contaminated with something harder than sapphire and it just happened to be a needle in a haystack) or it's actually mostly residues that merely need to be buffed out, as you pointed out. The appearance of a scratch can be extremely deceiving.
i'm in the design and architecture trade. Modern concretes can have quartzite and recycled glass and or porcelain in the mix. One of my watches got scratched hitting a decorative ruff finish concrete wall. Another hitting a sharp stainless steel edge on a countertop. Another time banging the side of a rectified porcelain tile. Someone mentioned the sparkle, thats from the quartzite. Thats used in decorative concrete blocks and top coats with color.
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Last time I mentioned cleavage to a Muscovite she had me looking for the fifth corner!
Quartzite is only a 7 on the Mohs scale. Glass or knife steel is typically 5.5. Stainless steel is a 6.
So, how are these scratching a substance that's a 9?
Some versions of sparkly concrete can have silicon carbide added to it, and it's a 9-9.5 on the Mohs scale, hard enough to actually scratch sapphire.
As you pointed out, a majority of a scratch can be residue that needs to be buffed out in order to remove it, so your "scratches" as a result of hitting softer quartzite, stainless steel and porcelain were scrapped-off residues and not actually scratches in the sapphire crystal.
Ha, I knew there would be some cleavage jokes. That is why i put pictures of cleavage so there wouldn't be some wild assumptions.
Oddly enough, that wasn't a cleavage joke that happened to involve muscovite-- it was a Muscovite joke that happened to involve cleavage...
I have the Apple Watch 2 and I got the exact same problem. The scratch I’m my watch is also in the very same position and I didn’t hit a wall or anything. Did you eventually fix yours?