I am aware after reading this forum that hesalite based on its material is easy to scratch... But how easy is easy? I am also aware that it can also be polished with polywatch but to that point, if it is so easily scratched, how much buffing would eventually be too much buffing?

Just wanted to get an idea of what I would be getting into with my first purchase. Been sitting on the sidelines considering all things prior to buying my first luxury watch.

I am not looking to baby it so understand things will happen but will be cautious to take better care of it (e.g. not banging it on walls... )

Thanks.

 

Yeah, it’s easy to scratch, but don’t worry about it. As you say, it buffs out, and it will take years to buff the life out of the crystal. Even then, it’s inexpensive to replace and repeat.

 

I have two Speedmaster Hesalite glass watches for last one year and they are just fine. I wear them in rotation and I don’t baby them. Theoretically they are easier to scratch but in practice if your job is in white collar environment, your watch will be safe from nasty scratches. I have yet to get one. There are few very fine lines on the glass that are visible only under magnifying glass but invisible under normal light.
I find them warmer than sapphire glass and i prefer my Speedy that way!!

 

Hesalite will scratch, but unless it is a really deep scratch it is not usually an issue. That being said I was much harder on watches when I only wore G-shocks and Timex Ironman watches. Actually got a chip in the crystal of one of my G-shocks. When you have a luxury watch on your wrist you are much more aware of your surroundings (or at least I am). If you are considering a Speedmaster Professional just remember that watch was flight qualified for all NASA space missions. It will hold up just fine.

 

Thank you, I am in a white collar environment and find myself in the air on a frequent basis. My biggest worry was having to polish the watch on a biweekly basis due to OCD and eventually having a paper thin glass protecting the face of my future watch...

There is no argument over sapphire/hesalite on the front, I personally could not stand the milky ring but I would have appreciated the open back. Unfortunately they do not make that model anymore!

 

When you polish a watch you are removing a very fine layer off of the crystal. It would take you a very long time to polish it down to paper thin. At that point if you are really that OCD you would have had the watch serviced and the crystal would have been replaced.

 

Plexiglass has a Mohs hardness scale of 3-4 which isn't very hard so it is easy to scratch but easy to polish. To put this in perspective, gold has a Mohs of around 2.5-3, hardened steel is 5-6, sapphire is 9 and diamond is 10; the hardest.

On my speedy's maiden voyage my wife and I were walking up Vegas Blvd and her diamond ring caught speedy just along the upper edge at 12 o'clock. This literately sickened me but luckily the scratch was small but unluckily deep and in a hard to get to spot. After owning the watch for a while I tend to notice scuffs and marks after seemly doing nothing to cause these as I work an office job and wear long sleeves almost every day...very frustrating. So I bought a polishing cloth and now about once every week or 2 I give it a polish and after about a sit-coms worth of polishing she looks perfect again...now the battle scar my wife gave it (out of jealously I can only assume) is almost completely gone.

 

I didn’t know that about the hardness comparisons. Very helpful to know. Thanks for the info.

 

Had one for 2 years or so now. Only one small scratch from hitting another watch on someone’s wrist while walking.

 

Hesalite gets surface marks from just being worn under shirt sleeve, but as mentioned above can be easily buffed out.

 

Yes. But Polywatch cures everything

 

Lacking polywatch, I used basic white toothpaste and an old t shirt to buff out a scuff on my "beater" Bostok Komanderskie. Worked a treat. But I think I'd invest in some Polywatch for my Speedmaster......

 

They never mentioned Polywatch when I got that orientation in the Philippines.

 

Toothpaste is honestly just as good, if not better than Polywatch...

 

...and it leaves your Speedy minty fresh!

 

Yes. It is also easy to polish and beautiful to look through

 

While not a direct answer to your question, I cleaned my daily wearer the other day: a MKII Speedmaster with a sapphire glass. Seems that I've managed to put three good scratches in it ... and there's no way that will buff out. So, don't think that sapphire is un-scratchable.

 

Yep - scratches pretty easily, but buffs out most times and it’s really not very expensive to replace a hesalite crystal on a modern Speedy - almost an order of magnitude less than the cost of replacing a sapphire crystal.

 

I've owned my Speedmaster for a year now and haven't put a single scratch on it yet. How do y'all scuff up your crystals so much? Quit bashing your watch into door jambs.

 

For the record, I don’t exclusively bash just the crystal into things... I allow the entire watch that distinct pleasure. The crystal seems to take it the hardest