Seiko Hardlex - not hard!

fourmations

hi all

i have a snzh (the fifty five fathoms job)
and i'm really disappointed how fragile the crystal is,
ive two big deep scratches in it and hazing and ive only had it three months
I only wear it once or twice a week and tbh its ruined
sure the bad scratches were my fault, i saw one happening
and the other i dont even know how it happened, so im not trashing the watch but the crystal seems so soft, its domed so thats not helping

is there different grades? im a beginner in the watch lark
but have eye on a few seikos but id be wary of the hardlex now
which is a kick in the arse for my plans of a wee budget collection

thanks

Hardlex is just Seiko's marketing term for mineral crystal.

They use several types (primarily soda-lime and borosilicate) with hardness range of around 550-900 Hv. Even at the upper range, the mineral crystals they use are significantly softer than a good sapphire crystal (1800-2200 Hv).

That's just the way it goes. Mineral is mineral. They offer moderate scratch resistance but no more.

blue5000

The hardlex is softer than sapphire crystal so it's less likely to shatter in an impact, but as TT says there is a tradeoff so it's easy to scratch.

saccades

Easy to fix, my snzh is two years old and only has 1 small crystal scratch.