What Is Rolex Sapphire Crystal

Many of our customers with older rolex watches ask if we can replace their acrylic crystals with synthetic sapphire crystals like the ones that rolex uses on their new watches.

What is rolex sapphire crystal.

They also want to replace his perfectly good band for another 500. Now let s talk a little bit about rolex crystals and what the evolution has looked like. Finally in the early 1980s rolex used sapphire crystals on the submariner ref. When rolex released the oysterquartz collection powered by in house quartz movements in 1977 sapphire crystal was used again.

The rolex perpetual was the last watch to possess a sapphire crystal which was not until 1991. Now all rolex watches feature the sapphire crystal. Although every watch in rolex s current catalog is now fitted with a sapphire crystal rolex does not manufacture sapphire crystals for use on older watches. 16800 and eventually began equipping all their watches with it.

Today all contemporary rolex watches use sapphire crystal. Synthetic sapphire crystals are extremely hard with diamond only being harder on the moths scale and incredibly clear. Rolex sapphire crystal and other glass. By 1991 the rolex perpetual was the last watch to possess a acrylic crystal.

These crystals can only be scratched by diamonds or other minerals graded as a 10 on the hardness scale. When the sea dweller was launched in 1967 it was one of rolex s first attempt at water resistant sapphire crystal technology. Please keep in mind that rolex is a fantastic company but they have lots of overhead and expenses. The 2008 second unveil is a much better upgrade from the 1967 version rolex named it the rolex sea dweller deepsea.

Rolex has stated that developing the green sapphire crystal took them several years. A synthetic sapphire crystal is resistant to scratches easy to read and requires little maintenance. Some may be skeptical about this but when making synthetic sapphire the material has to grow and this process takes several weeks and cannot be sped up. Furthermore they state that the process of manufacturing the green crystal takes several weeks.

If rolex has to replace a sapphire crystal they require a complete watch service because of the high probability of crystal shrapnel landing inside the movement potentially causing major damage. His cost before shipping is 1487.