How Do Scratches Actually Occur On Your Watch?

Scratches are annoying, but your watch is eventually going to get some, you can’t really avoid it.

You may also be really careful and protective of your watch and still get them, and it can seem like a bit of a mystery as to how they got there.

Many things can cause scratches, which I will go through below, some are obvious, others may not be, but either way, your watch is going to get scratched. 

Just Wearing The Watch Will Cause Scratches

Its sounds pretty obvious, but the reality is that wearing the watch is going cause scratches. When you are wearing it is on your wrist it is going to be at the highest risk of touching things that will cause scratches.

However, even if you are very careful, your watch will start to look duller and pick up little scratches out of seemingly nowhere. This might be slow to develop, but over a couple of years it will happen.

 I will quickly go through some of the main ways that this can happen.

Banging The Watch On Things Can Cause Scratches (and Dents)

The most obvious way of scratching your watch is just banging it off something. You will know right away that you have done it and you will know right away that there is probably damage, often a scratch, sometimes even more and you can actually dent the watch or even smash it or cause damage to the movement.

This is a very mentally painful experience as there is a split second of panic where you are too scared to look down at your wrist to assess the damage. Sometimes you get lucky… others time you don’t.

The other main type of “bang” is of course dropping your watch, this can also cause scratches, but it is more likely to cause other, more severe damage.

However, some of these “bangs” don’t need to be very aggressive to cause scratches. Just putting your hand down on a desk, to use a keyboard is a very easy way to pick up scratches, especially on the clasp of a bracelet.

When you think about it, your hand is probably going up and down and also moving back and forth all day long across the table and inevitably the watch will get scraped back and forth and tapped on and off the table all day long and it will get scuffed and scratched from enough of these little movements.

Grazing Past Things Will Cause Scratches On Your Watch

Probably a less serve way a watch can get scratched is through grazing it off something. This is when you are just swinging your arms about and you apparently you have no awareness of where you are in space and it doesn’t quit bang into something, but does rub against it quite aggressively.

This is usually going to mean the crystal of your watch rubs up against a wall and it if you have a plastic crystal; it’s going to get scratched. I suffer from this really badly, every Casio I have ever owned has been victim of this. They always somehow get scraped along any brick walls I am walking past.   

Your Clothes Will Cause Micro Scratches To Your Watch

You probably didn’t realise it, but your clothes can be scratching your watch.

If you think about your sleeve, it will be touching your watch quite often, swiping over it and pushing up against it. The fibres of the clothes will be brushing past constantly, and then you have the fact that dust particles could also be on your watch, so the clothes will be dragging this dust across the watch like an abrasive.

This type of damage is very difficult to see and really you will only see the results of it after a very long time. A great demonstration of this is on watches that have plated cases. You will see that the plating starts to wear away after many years and this is just caused from the constant rubbing of your clothes.

I guess you could see it as a very light sandpapering, it is just so light that it takes 10 years to see any changes.  

Your Skin Will Scratch The Caseback

Okay, so that is a bit of a lie, it’s not your skin directly that scratches the caseback, but it is involved.

If you have owned a watch for a while you may look at the caseback and wondered how it could get so scratched when really all it has done is been on your wrist for the majority of the time.

However, if you actually look at the watch on your writs you will see it can kind of wriggle around. This will of course depend on how tight you have the strap, but even so, it should still move a little. This is also down to the fact that your skin is stretchy and squishy.

This means that things can get trapped in between your skin and the watch and then as these two wiggle around …whatever is trapped is going to get rubbed in between and act like an abrasive.

It might just be a speck of dust, so really the damage will be miniscule, but over years of wear you will start to see the effects adding up. 

Putting The Watch Down Can Scratch It

While most scratches will occur when you are wearing the watch, you can still scratch it when you are putting it down.

If you look at the actions I have described above, they are all still present when you take the watch off and place it down. You will be tapping the watch onto your desk every night and while it’s gentle, over time it can cause damage.

Usually the most common cause here is going to be the bracelet knocking into the rest of the watch as you place it down. The bracelet is certainly going to touch the table, but the inside of the braclet is also going to touch the case back and potentially the side of the watch case too, which again, are going to be extremely small little taps, but they can all add up over time and after a few years you case will looked scratched. 

(You can read more about – Should You Worry About Scratches On A Watch?)

Some Of The Scratches Can Be From Corrosion

A very interesting aspect of scratches is around the whole area of the chemistry and physic of the metal the watches are made form.

I will be honest, this is a complicated topic and my understanding isn’t perfect, so I will try and keep things very simple, so if you are a metal expert … just skip this part.

Basically the case of your watch “rusts” or “oxidises” over time and some of the scratches are just a part of this layer chipping off, and the result is what we see as a scratch.

This is a concept people struggle to understand, as things like stainless steel don’t “rust” but there is actually this super thin outer layer on outside which is pretty much invisible to the naked eye as it may only be a few atoms deeps, but it is technically a form of oxidisation.   

This may also be why your watch does seem to dull over time, but it could also be from the many things discussed above and is actually probably a combination of them. 

The Material Of The Watch Will Influence How Easily Scratches Occur

I think it is also important to mention that the material your watch is made from is going to affect things.

Some metals are a lot softer than others, and annoyingly it is the precious metals that are ore guilty of this. This does mean you are paying for a more expensive watch and it is going to scratch a lot more easily than cheaper steel watches.

The material of your crystal also matters when it comes to scratching. Sapphire is pretty much scratch resistant …where as acrylic crystals are certainly not and will pick up scratches very easily.

This really means that you need to pay attention to the specifications of the watch as there can be a lot of difference between watches and these will all effect how likely scratches will occur.

How Polished The Watch Is Can Affect How Easily It Can Be Scratched

I think it is also important to remember that how the mental is finished is also going to play a role in how easily it can be scratched.

Although, that is maybe not the best way to describe it …the metal will scratch equally the same amount, it is just that certain finishes will show the scratches more clearly.

I am of course talking about polished surfaces. These will show scratches much more easily compared to brushed surfaces. It makes sense. The mirror finish of a polished surface is going to contrast with a scratch and make it stand out and it will be really noticeable., Where as a scratch on a brushed surface is going to be able to blend in and be a little harder to spot, especially if the scratch is going in the same direction as the brushing.

This is again something you should consider when buying a watch. While a polished watches can look awesome …it will show up its scratches a lot easier.

(You can read more about – What Do You Do If Your Watch Gets Scratched?)

Conclusion

As you can see, there are all sorts of different ways your watch can get scratched. Really just wearing it is going to expose it to all sorts of conditions that will allow for scratches to happen.

You really need to just accept that this will happen and forget about it. They can be annoying at first, but eventually you will realise they add character to your watch and make it uniquely yours and show that you enjoyed just living your life with your watch on your wrist.  

(You can read more about – Frequently Asked Questions About – Scratches On Watches)