Sapphire Glass coating

Hello! I am a Fenix 7x sapphire solar watch user and I have a question about the screen glass.

Does the glass have any kind of coating (oleophobic, anti-reflective, etc.) that can be washed off while showering with soap or shampoo, or swimming in a chlorinated pool or sea?

I've read about recommendations to rinse your watch with running clean water after exercising or swimming, but still, I'm wondering how much shampoo or soap can affect the screen glass?

I now have the second watch of this model (the first one I changed due to marriage). So, in the first watches I was swimming in salty sea water, I noticed that the glass became more dirty from my fingers when I worked with the touch screen, despite the fact that I rinsed the watch with fresh water after returning to the hotel after swimming in the sea.

That is, does the glass still have some kind of coating?

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0 unixcrab over 2 years ago

Doesn't look like it. Watch this from about 6:40:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF72hGIdrG8

He uses a tester on the screen and I would imagine a coating would affect the meter reading.

One take from his testing is that the Fenix7 sapphire screen is the best out there

0 Sam201176 over 2 years ago

Yes it has an anti reflective coating on the surface of the Sapphire (an AR coating )(sand can blast it in the sea and wear it down.. (posts in the decent Facebook forum.)

This can get scratched and worn from daily use etc, people have used a rag and toothpaste(polywatch is good too) to remove the coating when it gets scratched or worn...People usually think they've scratched the Sapphire, but usually it's just the coating that's scratched... People have posted (I run a Facebook Garmin group of 41,000 Garmin users) that they can remove the coating once scratched, but also it effects the way water is repelled from the screen... but there's no real negative effect of removing the coating, and the Sapphire looks good again without the antiglare worn coating.

All the best : -)

0 KrapfenKringel over 2 years ago in reply to Sam201176

Not anti-reflective, my Fenix 6 where I removed it reflects the same as before and my other two with intact coating.

0 Sam201176 over 2 years ago in reply to KrapfenKringel

I can't be sure on the 7 range, It may or may not be anti reflective, but there is a coating as you know, I'm not sure about it's exact purpose, water repellent or anti reflective? I don't know, but your findings with the Fenix 6 are useful to me when I try to help others.. thank you.

0 KrapfenKringel over 2 years ago in reply to Sam201176

That it wasn't anti-reflective on mine doesn't necessarily mean it is on others, so who knows. The coatings already seem to come in different scratch resistances, maybe they even have different types.

0 Sam201176 over 2 years ago in reply to KrapfenKringel

Yes very possible, there could be different screen coatings between watch series or generations, it would be interesting to know.

0 9970217 over 2 years ago

Fenix7 and Epix2 clearly have some glare coating over the glass. The way I see, it makes it more reflective, so it's more beautiful but reflex is bad for visibility. On the other hand, it repels oils, stains and fingerprint, what's good for visibility.

The FR955 doesn't have this coating. When it's clean, the screen is much more sharp and better visibility. But it gets oiled and dirty much more easily, specially when using the touch screen.

0 KrapfenKringel over 2 years ago in reply to 9970217

I don't see any difference between my F5, F6 (with removed coating) and F7x, still got them to compare side by side. If they are different it's not enough to notice.

0 5426514 over 1 year ago in reply to KrapfenKringel

Do you have any microscopic marks / scratches around the solar strip? Like look in every angle and you may see some because my fenix 7 pro is brand new and has it. My epix 2 was so much more solid. I'm so bummed