Can I fit a Sapphire Crystal to my Vintage Omega?

The plastic or glass cover on a watch face is known as the crystal and it's designed to protect the dial. There are usually one of three types; Acrylic, Mineral and Sapphire.

Acrylic crystals are a form of see through plastic or perspex, and there appears to be a misconception that a watch with an acrylic crystal is somehow inferior or cheaper to one with a modern sapphire or mineral type crystal. Many of our customers ask if we can replace the plastic acrylic crystal with a sapphire crystal.

Sapphire crystals became popular in the early 90s and we were wowed by their promises of un-scratchable, diamond-like hardness and durability. Acrylic crystals are much softer, are very easily marked and they tend to fall out more as they are held in by compression rather than bonded.

The technical answer to replacing the watch crystal with a sapphire type is that although it would probably be possible to do, the case design is different for watches designed to accept acrylic type crystals. Mineral or Sapphire crystals are bonded in which is very much a one way process. You would also seriously harm the originality and value of a vintage piece by trying to re-engineer it, in much the same way as if you tried to put a modern fuel injected engine into a MGB Roadster.

The problem is, that in the real world you can still quite easily scratch, chip and even completely smash a sapphire crystal, and once marked there is literally nothing you can do restore their finish, other than forcibly break it out of the case and bond a new one in.  They also suffer from another problem; surface glare and showing every fingerprint and mark when touched. Rolex and Breitling solved the glare issue with special coatings but these wear off the inside too and you end up with an odd purple streaked finish that's visible under some lighting. Acrylic crystals, however, offer better impact resistance with less risk of shattering or chipping. If they are heavily scratched or cracked they can be inexpensively and quickly replaced.  They can also easily polished if you get a light mark or scratch.

In terms of value, the type of crystal fitted has no bearing on a watches value and similarly absolutely no bearing on the quality of the watch.  The worlds finest watches are fitted with both acrylic and sapphire crystals largely depending on their vintage and application,  and similarly for the world's cheapest watches where cheap, far-east imports have sapphire crystals fitted.