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The starting cost for a sapphire crystal watch is around $250-$300. Whilst this isn’t a lot of money when comparing the price to luxury watches, it is considerably more than you would expect to pay for a fashionable watch such as a Michael Kors, or a basic functional watch such as a Timex Expedition.
In short, if you are going to pay $50-$100 for an entry-level watch, it will very likely be made using mineral glass.
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The Longer You Wear A Watch – The More Value You Get
It goes without saying that the more you use something, the more value for money you get out of it. This is no different with wristwatches.
If you own a fashion watch with mineral glass and wear it daily, after a year or two, there is no doubt that you will see scratches start appearing on the dial. No matter how careful you are, mineral glass will scratch.
It makes sense to buy a cheap watch with mineral glass if you are going to throw it away within a year. This way you will not be bothered by any scratches or scuffs.
On the other hand, if you own a sapphire crystal watch, the glass is very difficult to scratch. Whilst sapphire crystal is not invincible, it will not scratch by simply brushing against a hard surface.
Sapphire Crystal Vs Mineral Glass
First of all, even though there are many differences in the quality of mineral and sapphire glass. One similarity they share is that they are somewhat brittle when dropped. There is no glass that exists which can survive a drop without getting chipped or smashed.
The main difference that you get is exactly what you pay for – scratch resistance. Sapphire crystal will scratch if you do serious damage to the dial, but it is very resistant to various knocks and scrapes.
Mineral glass is pretty much the exact opposite of sapphire crystal and will scratch as soon as any kind of pressure is put on it. The upside of mineral glass is that it can be changed very inexpensively. A watch repair shop will pay around $5 for a replacement mineral glass and it will take them around 10 minutes to replace it.
What About Seiko Hardlex?
Hardlex crystal is a patented glass used exclusively by Seiko and its subsidiaries. This glass is genuinely harder than both mineral crystal and sapphire glass.
Although it Hardlex is cheaper and more durable than sapphire crystal, it is certainly not as scratch-resistant. In other words, you are giving up quite a lot of scratch resistance in order to gain shatter resistance.
Whilst this is a fairly unique feature, it doesn’t make much sense for a dress watch to use Hardlex crystal since it has a much higher chance of scratching than chipping.
Other Options
Other than mineral glass or hardlex, the only real other alternative to sapphire crystal is acrylic. Acrylic is a cheap material and certainly cannot really be used well on any watch which is intended to be expensive and/or worn on smart occasions.
The most successful examples of acrylic watch dials are the various Swatch POP watches which were popular during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
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