Diamond coated watch glass

[Spoooooonz]

http://www.longislandwatch.com/Thunderbird...s_Watches-1.htm

These are an offshoot brand of a German company. The glass is has a CVD deposited layer of diamond on. It's funny that they more expensive models still use sapphire because that is what people expect, despite the fact that a diamond coated crystal has the advantage of being harder to scratch and tougher than a sapphire.

[FxrAndy]

I asked a few questions about these and the reidenschild a couple of weeks ago, it seams the chronos are using the same movements as our reps

[Spoooooonz]

I'd like to know where they are sourcing their diamond coated watch crystals.

[slickdick]

I seriously doubt the socalled diamond coated mineral is better then saphire. This is not something new, its called Saphlex and mainly used on lesser priced watches.

Edited September 3, 2008 by slickdick

[Spoooooonz]

I seriously doubt the socalled diamond coated mineral is better then saphire. This is not something new, its called Saphlex and mainly used on lesser priced watches.

No, sapphlex is sapphire bonded onto a glass crystal. Sapphlex is a scratch resistant as sapphire but has the advantage of being tougher, it s used on divers watches a lot. These crystals go one better by bonding polycrystalline diamond onto the glass.

[Guest avitt]

While a nice idea, I'd rather have sapphire on my watches. Remember that these coatings are maybe 1-2 microns thick...They may protect against surface scratches, but I'm sure that they can be scratched by a sharp blow (just like any thin surface coating, which takes on much of the property of the substrate material). Add to this the fact that the optics won't be as clear as sapphire, and I think it's a pretty clear choice.

You know, DLC coating are used on the inside of airplane windows, to help protect against vandalism...but people still find a way.

[Spoooooonz]

While a nice idea, I'd rather have sapphire on my watches. Remember that these coatings are maybe 1-2 microns thick...They may protect against surface scratches, but I'm sure that they can be scratched by a sharp blow (just like any thin surface coating, which takes on much of the property of the substrate material). Add to this the fact that the optics won't be as clear as sapphire, and I think it's a pretty clear choice.

You know, DLC coating are used on the inside of airplane windows, to help protect against vandalism...but people still find a way.

1. In this case the substrate is hard enough to support the coating which is applied by CVD and will be between 10-20 microns thick

2. This isn't DLC, this is polycrstalline diamond, totally different material. This stuff is 10k vickers hardness

[Guest avitt]

I think that this is a case of "fast'n loose" marketing semantics...I seriously doubt that these are CVD grown polycrystalline synthetic diamond coatings (which is a relatively slow and expensive process). I'm pretty sure that, if you dig much deeper, you'll find that what they refer to as DFC (Diamond Film Coating), is actually DLC (Diamond Like Carbon) applied by CVD.

But I accept that I could be wrong...Let us know what you find out.