I am horribly rough with watches, which is why I have a hard time allowing myself to buy an expensive watch. I will say though that my Malvern Auto crystal is still unscratched and looks great.

This weekend, I stumbled on a beatup TAG Heuer for sale at a pawn shop. I couldn't tell you which model it was or how old it was, but it was battered. The bezel rotated freely without clicks and rotated either direction. I assume this was because something was broken. The case and bezel were scratched, of course. The crystal was gunked up and I asked the guy for a soft cloth so I could wipe it. When I did, the crystal looked superb. The back of the watch indicated it was a sapphire crystal.

My CW is the first watch I have owned with a sapphire crystal, so I really don't have much experience with them. I know they are supposed to be fairly scratch reistant, but more prone to shattering. I was wondering if anyone had any experiences to share about any of their watches having a sapphire crystal that were indicative of the pros or cons of sapphire crystals? Has anyone had one shatter? If so, what happened?

Sapphire is great, I have a few watches with sapphire, none with scratches. Some of the crystals are coated to reduce reflections. My Revue Thommen has coating both on the inside and outside, and it has a few tiny scratches on the coating that can only be seen under a special angle.