Wife is thinking of getting me an Apple Watch Series 3 for my birthday. I’m wondering how durable is the alu body in Sports version of Apple Watch. According to this article in iMore, it’s pretty tough but I’d like to hear from real world usage after 6-8 months. Any heart breaking dents and chirps and dings?
My wife has one and it seems durable. They do make screen protectors for the watch and it seems sensible to use one, though.
That’s for the screen right? I think the Ion X glass should be quite tough. I’m not sure about the aluminum body. I had a MacBook Air that seemed to get chirps quite easily - once I knocked it on a door frame and yup, slight dent. I can’t imagine how much more damage it will be on a Watch.
I have a Sport series 0 I got day one 3 years ago. Couple of minor dings and I wear it every day.
I also have a day one, launch aluminum Sport. I’ve worn it every day since, too. The body is almost perfect. The screen has multiple scratches, visible only when it’s not illuminated. I wonder what I’m doing wrong.
The lower-end Apple watches use glass screens, which will scratch over time. The higher-end ones use sapphire crystal.
If you don’t see the scratches when the watch is lit up, I don’t know that I would really care.
If you’re truly concerned about it, there’s always this…
https://www.amazon.com/Spigen-Rugged-Resilient-Absorption-Original/dp/B00UVSNQPM
My Sport 0 had no scratches on glass or body of every day use for 2 years. My gen 3 (or whatever it’s called) has scratches on the glass, but I only see them when the light reflects off of just right. Doesn’t bother me. I am curious how I had my first one was in perfect condition but I managed to scratch the new one in a few months.
A couple of guys at work have these and I think they look crap. These big square things on their arm. Look almost cheap and nasty really. Wanted one, not going to get one.
These things are for Alpha Nerds, only.
Sounds like the glass surface is LESS durable as compared to the body. That’s interesting. I have not thought that the glass would scratch having use a mech watch with sapphire all my life. Hmmm…
As for the ugly big black block on my arm - that’s not as bad as the ugly big black brick I carry in my hand and bulging in my pocket.
Hoo boy, you must do great on Grindr with that BBC!
It sounds like the Apple Watch sport uses ion-x glass not sapphire (although the article was from 2015 so perhaps the newer editions have been upgraded) which is not as strong as sapphire glass.
need to clarify - of course I know glass scratches… my iPhones are testament of that. What I meant was I was more concerned of the body since it never occur to me to worry about the glass face due to wearing sapphire watches all this time.
All my regular watches have scratched glass faces (sub $500 watches), so I guess it shouldn’t be surprising, but it is a bit disappointing. I was ready to buy a stainless steel (which has the better glass) this last generation as well, because I really like the watch, but then Apple was typical Apple and made the more expensive models only in LTE versions, which I do not want.
My Series 0 has two small “dings” on the glass about the size of the end of a ball-point pen. If you put two dots on a paper that is about the size of them. The body is still in great shape. It’s been worn about 90% of the time, and has gotten banged on door jambs and the like – the usual crap stuff does.
If you are worried about durability of the Watch, don’t be.
I’ll echo the sentiment above. I had a stainless Gen 1 because I wanted the sapphire screen for durability, but I ended up barely using the thing. For my most recent purchase I went with an aluminum Nike edition Gen 3, just because didn’t want to invest too much since I wasn’t sure I’d use it any more than my old one, and despite being concerned about durability.
I needn’t have been concerned in either case; I use it a lot more than my first Apple Watch, and it’s currently in perfect condition after a few months.
The LTE version is not on sale in Malaysia - so I only have the Series 3 GPS version for choice and I am eyeing the Nike+ version. I’d think the LTE version would drain the battery more, so it wasn’t even in my consideration. But having a GPS-only but sapphire glass or stainless steel would be nice.
Ok in reference to our Broken Forum discussion I am gonna go ahead and call this out as adding unnecessary sexual locker room “jokes” to a topic. I am sure ladies just looooove these kinds of jokes, plus it was not even funny to me as a dude on top of that.