A watch crystal is one of the most important parts of a watch. It covers your watches faceplate and makes it able for you to clearly see the time. A broken, damaged, or scuffed crystal significantly impacts your ability to use your watch.
Read this article to learn about how to customize your watch crystals and take care to ensure they don’t get damaged.
Customizing and Caring for Your Watch Crystal
Your watch crystal doesn’t just protect your watch face, but it provides a way to customize your style. There are several different options available for you to choose from.
Acrylic Glass Watch Crystal
One of the most popular and least expensive watch crystals is the acrylic crystal. This crystal provides great protection because it takes a lot of force and wear and tear to shatter the face. If you accidentally knock your watch into the wall, it protects the face from cracking or scuffing.
Acrylic is easy to clean and polish, removing any dents, dings or scuffs easily if they do occur. If acrylic does break, it doesn’t shatter. This is the most common crystal used for watches that feature heavy sports lines, such as Rolex and Omega.
Sapphire Glass Watch Crystal
A watch crystal that is featured at the opposite end of the spectrum, one of the most expensive, is sapphire. Sapphire crystal glass is harder than mineral crystals. It’s close to the hardness of diamonds and is found in many luxury brands.
Sapphire crystal is completely scratch and dent-proof and also crack resistant. The crystal cannot be scratched by minerals other than other sapphire glass and diamonds.
If a breakage happened to occur, the cost to replace would be more, but breakage likelihood would be less.
Mineral Glass Watch Crystal
Lastly, the mineral crystal face is the mid-range watch crystal. It’s a lot harder than acrylic crystal, but not nearly as hard as sapphire. It’s found in a lot of designer watches, but not luxury watches.
Mineral watch crystals are heat-treated, curing them to protect from scratches and dings. Though the method of heat and chemicals gives them some protection, they can still receive scratches on their face.
The heat and chemical process does, however, give them resistance to breakage. Replacements are a lot less expensive than sapphires, but the sturdiness and longevity are similar.
Choose Your Watch Face
Now that you know of some of the watch crystal faces to choose from, you should also be aware that you can custom engrave your watch. After you’ve chosen which crystal for your face, you choose if you’d like an engraving, design, or other special customizations for your watch.
If you’re looking for longevity, you get what you pay for with the luxury sapphire crystals. If you need something that you want to withstand scratches, but don’t care if it doesn’t last forever, the acrylic glass would do great. Mid-range watches cost less but provide a long life.
Interested in learning more about customization choices you have for your watch? Check out our parts today.