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PSA - The PVD coating on series 10 doesn’t seem to help much with scratches
- Thread starter AppleTLDR
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I’ve been using a Natural Titanium watch since launch and it looks brand new.
Got mine launch day and it still looks perfect. My SS watches would already be covered in micro scratches, so this is (thus far) an improvement.
It definitely looks like scratches in the photo from Brian Tong, I have no idea how he scratched it that badly within a few days. I had a SS 7 graphite for a year and never had one scratch on it.
I just got a slate and am now considering the Natural instead. I feel like the slate is too dark?
Same. It's refreshing going from the stainless models that looked like crap within a week, with micro scratches everywhere, to something that looks as new as the day I got it.
That is good to hear! Mine is holding up great as well, I mean I haven't banged it into anything but just from normal use.
Slate is gonna show fingerprints and any scratches. Been digging the shininess on my wrist since getting it too--really lights up my monkey brain.
Metal without a coating is prone to scratches, however with stainless steel you can polish it. I don't know about titanium. SS AWs like the graphite one from prior generations were much harder to scratch because of the coating.
I know this thread started back in Sep before these were out in the wild... but I think it's established now that even the Hermes S10s are "silver colored titanium", and thus while the color match is in-line with the prior Silver SS models, they have the same "hardiness" and "scratch-characteristics" as the other S10 Titanium watches (eg. similar lack of ability to really buff out scratches).
I'm deciding whether I want to go with the Natural Titanium or pay the significant premium to go with the Hermes version, so have been reading a lot of threads on this topic.
I am the kind of person who's taking good care of his belonging. I never banged my S10 Nat.Ti on anything but I could see micro scratches after 2 weeks of use. They are not obvious but I couldn't unseen them. I decided to return the watch. I wish they release a brushed finish instead.
Honestly, all polished metals will get micro scratches. I too and very OCD when it comes to these things, but I understand that over time micro scratches will accumulate no matter what. I had to make peace with that, I think the trade-off from the Ultra is great, looks more like jewelry, much thinner and lighter.
Agreed, I'm not sure what finish you could put on a device to totally stop scratches and have it be shiny.
I also noticed some small imperfections on mine--not scratches, think little "chips" or dings--that I'm not totally convinced I was the cause of. For all I know it came out of the box like this, but the imperfections are unnoticeable in normal use: the watch needs to be under perfect lighting conditions and the watch viewed from a specific angle to be seen.
I would imagine these imperfections would be much more noticeable on the Slate finish.
You're totally right, I need to make peace with that. During lunch time, I returned my S10 silver aluminum and bought once again a Nat. titanium. So gorgeous. I also treat myself with the Alpine milanese loop.
I decided to stick with the slate, mostly cause there are some unknowns about the coatings on the new watches and the ability to re-polish them. I also mainly wear dark clothing.
What unknowns are there?
All Ti polished watches have a PVD coating--none can be re-polished due to the PVD layer.
He was careless with Milanese Loop and raking the band against the watch. Milanese Loop has been documented to scratch the watch if the owner is careless taking the band on and off.