Jet Black Apple Watch durability 28 days later - part 1

It’s been 28 days since I have been wearing the Jet Black Series 10 Apple Watch, and I am impressed with its durability, except for one minor flaw that I would call a manufacturing defect. 

We’ll get to that part at the end.

Part of this past month involved me taking the watch on an international 10-day trip and purposefully leaving my Stainless Steel Series 9 at home so I would have no choice but to always wear the Jet Black. 

There were some moments where I did smack the watch in the shower, or on a wall just maneuvering through the hotel room, but thankfully the Jet Black finish is still flawless. 

I tried to find scratches today under the harshest light that I have, but I could not find any. 

The fact that I needed harsh light to even look for scratches tells you something.

It looks like Apple has improved their manufacturing technique for the Jet Black finish when compared to the iPhone 7. Even if there were scratches, the rounded nature of the watch hides them well since every curve of the watch reflects light and masks any scratches that might be there. 

The only flat surface with a jet black finish on this watch is the digital crown capacitive sensor, and even that was scratch free. 

I even looked at the grooves where the bands are inserted, and those edges and corners were still flawless. 

Now don’t take this the wrong way. This material is aluminum after all.

If you were to put your watch through more extreme situations such as an auto mechanic who is constantly rubbing and bumping against metal parts and concrete floors, or if you are just doing some basic hiking and trip and fall and the watch smacks the ground hard, you will probably scratch the jet black finish. Normal day to day bumps won’t harm your watch, but extreme cases will.

I know when my Jet Black iPhone 7 Plus hit the floor on the corner (many years ago), the corner got scuffed and you could see regular aluminum through it. I don’t think most people need to worry about the watch taking such a tumble since most people hopefully aren’t falling down that hard.

Near the end of my watch examination, I did notice a tiny pin prick of bare metal shining where the jet black finish either flaked off, or was never finished properly to begin with. It is right at the border where the display meets the body of the watch, and once you spot it, you can’t unsee it.

It is hard to see most of the time, but if you’re looking for it, you will find it. I can’t unsee it now, and it is a bit disappointing. I will take it into an Apple Store today, and hopefully they can replace it since it does look like a manufacturing defect. If I had hit the watch that hard in that spot scraping away the jet black finish, the screen would definitely have scratched or cracked. 

Stay tuned for updates after I visit the Apple Store to see what they can do.