She's had her silver Sport model since Friday. Today she noticed a small and very straight scratch from the top left corner towards the middle of the screen.
She's not even sure how it happened. It's very, very thin and quite hard to see unless you look at it at just the right angle but it's definitely there. Makes me wonder what our watches will look like in a couple years!
Hopefully they bring the sapphire to all models in the future, or if the 2nd or 3rd gen look good enough we'll step it up to the stainless steel next time.
Anyone else have any scratches yet?
(1) ... It is not natural sapphire ... it is MAN MADE ... synthetic sapphire.
(2) ... it is a watch that gonna take a lot of hits as you do not keep it in your pocket like an iPhone that has a clock by the way ... rub it around on Water Skin Leather, like Alligator bags ... it will lose electrical data and battery life.
(3) ... also .. they call it sapphire GLASS. Naysayers say it technically not a glass .. however .. it also technically is not sapphire.
Still ... they call it a glass.
BIG CARBON FOOT PRINT ... this is not green sustainable watch you know.
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http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/...-iphone-6-and-why-corning-should-be-nervousIt is now fairly clear that Apple is investing heavily in the production and machining of sapphire glass for its future products. Sapphire glass isnt a new material, but its only in recent years, due to improved manufacturing methods, that weve started to see it used commercially. The iPhone 5s camera was protected by a small piece of sapphire glass, and the iPhone 5Ss new home button/fingerprint scanner is made from sapphire glass. Historically, sapphire has been used for the front cover of high-end wristwatches. Now, it seems Apple is preparing to launch an iPhone or iWatch with its entire front face protected by sapphire glass. Why is sapphire glass suddenly so hot? After leading the pack for a few years, has Cornings Gorilla Glass finally met its match?
What is sapphire glass?
Despite its name, sapphire glass isnt actually a glass its a single crystal of transparent sapphire. This sapphire is created synthetically, using a similar process to how the semiconductor industry grows single crystals of silicon (the Czochralski process). Basically, a tiny piece of sapphire (a seed crystal) is dipped into a vat of molten alumina (Al2O3), and then slowly drawn upwards, forming very long, carrot-shaped crystals called boules (part of a boule is pictured above). These crystals are then sliced with a saw, and shaped/polished accordingly. (The same method is used to slice silicon wafers from large silicon boules.)
iPhone 5 camera: Sapphire is scratch resistant!
The iPhone 5s camera is protected by sapphire glass
This process isnt cheap, is energy intensive, and there is usually quite a lot of wastage when it comes to slicing up the boules. It is mostly for cost reasons that sapphire glass has historically only been used in small quantities, and usually in high-ticket items (wristwatches are the obvious example). Its also used in military settings, for shatter-proof windows and the like.
Sapphire glass, except for its cost, has some incredibly desirable qualities. Its highly transparent between 150nm (ultraviolet) and 5500nm (far-infrared), much stronger than normal glass, and its one of the most scratch-resistant materials in the world it scores 9 on the Mohs scale, one down from diamonds 10, and quite a lot tougher than Gorilla Glasss ~7. Its transparency, plus its very high melting temperature (~2,000C) and high thermal conductivity, make it almost uniquely suited for use in arc lamps, laser tubes, and other extreme use-cases. Oh, its highly resistant to acids and other caustic substances, too
