zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

: I am a proud new owner of a Planet Ocean (black
: bezel, black rubber strap) and plan to never
: remove it from my wrist. Which leads to my
: question - just how durable and
: scratch-resistant is the sapphire crystal on
: these watches? I realize that the watches
: are very rugged but the domed crystal
: concerns me somewhat. I am someone who is
: quite active and don't like to have to be
: concerned about my watch. That's why I got a
: PO. Between the sports I do - skiing,
: cycling, hiking - to miscellaneous knocks
: and bashes, I don't want to have to remove
: my watch. Am I going to end up with a
: scratched up crystal? I've had good luck
: with sapphire crystals in the past but never
: had a domed one.

: Any experience or thoughts?

: Thanks!

Actually, the problem you will have with the PO is that it has an anti-reflective coating on the OUTSIDE of the crystal as well as on the inside. This coating is very easy to scratch, and many owners end up just removing the outer coating all-together with Polywatch compound. The sapphire crystal itself is extremely resistant to scratches, but the outer AR coating is not.

Omega uses the domed shaped crystal and the AR coating to reduce glare as much as possible. The outer coating can also make the crystal appear to "disappear" in certain lighting, since both layers are coated with the same material. Omega's regular Seamasters have the coating on the inside only.

As for scratching the sapphire crystal, it can be scratched by a diamond or silicon carbide, which is present in some artificial stone surfaces and sandpaper. So, if you were to scrape the crystal along a wall that has silicon carbide in the mixture, you could end up scratching it. Otherwise, sapphire crystals are pretty much scratch-proof. They have a hardness of 9 on the Moh's Scale of Hardness, with diamond being a 10 and silicon carbide being around 9.4.