Watches with anti-reflective crystals?

johnniet

johnniet

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When it comes down to it I just don't want to see my watch crystal. Or at least, I don't want to see bright light reflecting off of it, disturbing the beatiful view of the dial of my Timex. :)
I see that Invicta makes many of their watches antireflective--I don't know if it's one sided or two. St. Moritz has the Nereos.
Who else makes a sub-$500 watch with an anti-reflective crystal, and how well does the coating work? How well does it hold up over time?
 
If you a little higher, take a look at Revue Thommen's Airspeeds. The crystal is inset quite a bit and very little reflection is ever seen on the crystal. There are times I keep wondering where it went.
 
I have a St. Moritz Titan2 with an anti-glare coating on the inside of the sapphire crystal. Sensational watch and almost PERFECTLY accurate. It's gained one second in something like 6 months. I can't say enough good things about my St. Moritz.
 
It looks like a lot of the St. Moritz watches are anti-glare treated. Are all of them? The one I'm most interested in is the Format 2. The St. Moritz web site doesn't mention anti-glare, but some shop pages say it is. :P

Hang on Buzz...did you say inside only? Doesn't your Titan II reflect like crazy on the outside?
 
The Titan2 is only coated on the inside. If it were coated on the outside, you'd have to worry about scratching off the coating by accident. Coating on the inside does not provide as much glare-proofing as both inside and outside, but it is substantially better than none at all.

The St. Moritz website has downloadable watch manuals. The manuals will usually tell you whether the watch is glare coated or not.
 
Buzzbait said:
The Titan2 is only coated on the inside. If it were coated on the outside, you'd have to worry about scratching off the coating by accident.
Click to expand...

The idea is to avoid that by having the bezel (or whatever else surrounds the crystal) elevated a little bit above the crystal. Most things that bump into it will then be stopped by the surrounding metal. But yes, it requires some care.

I downloaded the Format 2 manual and it says "anti-glare treated", but not whether it was on one side or two. :yawn:

I may just have to go to an actual watch shop and check them out! :o
 
My Fortis Fleiger has a beautiful crystal and half the time you don't even know it's there.

fortis1.jpg
 
I'm pretty sure that St. Moritz only does inside coating. Shoot them an email to confirm. I asked a bunch of questions before I ordered mine, and their email support was great. Good people.
 
Good Morning All-

Purchased the same Fortis Flieger (pictured by Peter Atwood above) for my father-in-law who was seeking a bright, bold, highly-legible timepiece. The Fortis is an excellent value and a true horological workhorse that is a pleasure to own.

Fortis has an excellent anti-reflective coating on the lens, but one may wish to consider upgrading to a sapphire crystal if scratching could be a problem. The base model is mineral glass.

An exposed anti-reflective coating is certainly subject to scratching. Many enthusiasts prefer only an interior coating for this very reason.

~ Blue Jays ~
 
Not sure which one mine is but it is incredibly tough. I have worn this thing for about 6 months now and it still looks good as new with no visible scratches whatsoever on the crystal. Great watch and like blue jays says, an excellent value. I replaced the leather strap in the pic with a black rubber Ridgo strap and it looks 100 times better. By far my favorite watch and I like it even better than my Sinn 656.
 
I think the Fortis Flieger as Peter mentioned above has the best anti-reflective coating on a crystal I've ever seen. My wife thought I had been gypped into buying a watch without a crystal. :D It may be worth noting that the Flieger doesn't come with a sapphire crystal standard, although it can be special-ordered with one. Princeton Watches has good prices on them.
 
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