I bought my wife a Watch SE and she is mostly happy with it.

she rides a bicycle to work every day (25km each way). After around 2 weeks of riding (winter gloves and jacket) the screen has been rubbed matte on the 4 corners of the screen.

I had seen on mine, after a couple of weeks, there were some light scratches on the display, so I ordered protectors, when I told my wife, she showed me how ground down her own screen was.

The protector works fine on my Watch, but on hers, the screen was so badly rubbed down that it left air bubbles between the screen and then protector and it fell off after a couple of days.

She swears, she has not scraped the phone anywhere, it is just from rubbing on her riding jacket. Is it normal, that the screen is so delicate? I’ve never had such problems in over 45 years of wearing watches.

I’m trying to get it replaced by Amazon, as I would consider wearing the watch whilst wearing a jacket is normal wear and tear that such a device should be able to cope with…

Not normal. I've had my SE for about 10 months now and no problems. And I too do wear gloves and jacket for my winter workouts: screen is in mint condition.

NoBoMac said:

Not normal. I've had my SE for about 10 months now and no problems. And I too do wear gloves and jacket for my winter workouts: screen is in mint condition.

Thanks, that is what I thought. Let's hope that Amazon don't kick up too much fuss...

Had an Aluminum S4 and the screen on it had blemish marks in the edges from adding and removing a TPU case for workouts. Your wife’s screen is not alone. Whether it’s normal or not, I don’t know but what I did know was that I was completely done with the IonX screen from then on.

I'm at the 12 month mark on my SE and not a blemish on the screen. Hoping it stays that way for the second 12 months. I did use a soft screen protector for the first 12 and will go without for the second.

No issues related to the coating coming off.

That is how it looks after 2 weeks under a cycling jacket…

Big_D said:

View attachment 1958844 That is how it looks after 2 weeks under a cycling jacket…

while I have never seen something like this (nor experienced), I'd say there is something in that jacket/sleeve that is causing this. if you replace the watch, I'd suggest that your wife wears something else over the watch while using that jacket or it is bound to happen again, imho

I already have a Spigen EZfit protective glass for it. The first one fell off after a couple of days, but it was a double pack.

My Spigen glass is holding up well and the small scratches on the Watch aren’t affecting how well it sticks to the Watch.

Big_D said:

View attachment 1958844 That is how it looks after 2 weeks under a cycling jacket…

Why are the scratches in that direction? Are you sure it's from a jacket? Does it have metal in the sleeves?

Howard2k said:

Why are the scratches in that direction? Are you sure it's from a jacket? Does it have metal in the sleeves?

I was wondering the same thing. Seems rather odd that all the scratches are going the same direction in straight lines from a jacket. I would have thought they'd be going every which way (similar to the one that isn't straight)...unless it's just the way the light is hitting and illuminating the scratches in the pic.

Yeah, those scratches are odd, as if it was dragged across something since they all go in the same direction. Also looks like a crack below the upper-right scratches. I had something similar looking happen with my 3 when I was canyoneering (banged up the screen dragging across a rock face).

If something in the sleeves, maybe something like a snap, zipper? But even then, one would expect the metal bits to scrape at different places at different angles since the arm never passes through at the exact same position/angle every time.

The photo doesn’t show it very well. All 4 corners were evenly ground down. I think the big scratch (not a crack) came from working in the garden at the weekend (gardening gloves).

Big_D said:

The photo doesn’t show it very well. All 4 corners were evenly ground down. I think the big scratch (not a crack) came from working in the garden at the weekend (gardening gloves).

Gardening gloves aren't going to do that. It seems that other things are happening there.

Is her jacket made out of chainmail?? It's pretty unusual to see that much scratching after just two weeks. I'd check to see if there's some kind of metal hardware or unusually abrasive fabric on the inside of her sleeve.

There's something that seems strange here.

I have an aluminum AW7, which has the same Ion-x glass as the SE. I walk my dog 2 to 3 hours every day, rain or shine. I wear a variety of jackets, coats, and gloves depending on the weather. Some have zippers or buttons on the sleeves. My arm is swinging back and forth most of the time. My watch doesn't have a scratch on it. I had an SE and it did have some scratches on it, but they were caused by hitting it on the edge of a concrete sidewalk during a fall. I've never seen a watch look like that simply from a sleeve rubbing on it.

That looks like impact damage. Good luck getting it replaced. It's pretty obvious a jacket rubbing the screen wouldn't cause that type of damage unless the inside is covered in sandpaper

Not impact damage, just rubbing against a cycling winter jacket... But, whatever, no guarantee repair. They want $300.

They only cost a couple of dollars more than that new! So, a complete write-off after only 3 weeks of use.

I'm having them return it unrepaired. A friend of mine runs a repair service and can replace the screen for half of that.

The last time I won't buy a screen protector with such a device...

Big_D said:

Not impact damage, just rubbing against a cycling winter jacket... But, whatever, no guarantee repair. They want $300.

They only cost a couple of dollars more than that new! So, a complete write-off after only 3 weeks of use.

I'm having them return it unrepaired. A friend of mine runs a repair service and can replace the screen for half of that.

The last time I won't buy a screen protector with such a device...

Click to expand...

Maybe your friend can source the sapphire version of the screen.. It would be considerably more scratch resistant

I’ve been thinking, it was rainy and windy, I have a suspicion, that road grime, fine sand etc. was kicked up by tyre spray and got under the jacket arms. Just a guess, but the cloth itself shouldn’t do that.

Big_D said:

I’ve been thinking, it was rainy and windy, I have a suspicion, that road grime, fine sand etc. was kicked up by tyre spray and got under the jacket arms. Just a guess, but the cloth itself shouldn’t do that.

That sounds spectacularly unlikely - it looks like the watch has been physically abused.
I can't think of a scenario where this is regular wear and tear, and I haven't seen any other similar incidences of damage reported here.

Big_D said:

I’ve been thinking, it was rainy and windy, I have a suspicion, that road grime, fine sand etc. was kicked up by tyre spray and got under the jacket arms. Just a guess, but the cloth itself shouldn’t do that.

If it was sand or a jacket you'd expect the scratches to be going in multiple directions. This looks like exactly what has happened to me before (and why I only buy them with sapphire crystals now)... she inadvertently bumped into something and didn't realize it.

Big_D said:

Not impact damage, just rubbing against a cycling winter jacket...

I can't imagine any material a jacket would be made of that could do that to a watch face without rubbing skin raw.

That’s not normal at all and looks like it’s come into contact with something more abrasive than a jacket cuff. My +2 year old series 5 has no scratches at all and is regularly exposed to the cuffs of jackets etc. the x-ion glass isn’t as scratch prone as some would like you to believe and is fine for everyday normal wear and tear.

BugeyeSTI said:

Maybe your friend can source the sapphire version of the screen.. It would be considerably more scratch resistant

Considerably more expensive too.

I wear my AW 7 underneath my boiler suit sleeve (and jacket if it’s cold) when I’m gardening. I’ve just spent all week digging, pruning apple trees and sawing done pretty big branches. My gloves and sleeves got pretty grubby. My AW has a soft film (LK) screen protector on it and there isn’t a mark on it after a week of outdoor grubby work, quite often in the rain. I also went on one bike ride (50k) wearing the watch under my jacket sleeve. If none of that marked a soft plastic film it’s difficult to understand how your wife’s screen got marked like that. It’s certainly not normal. None of my watches - Apple or Garmin have ever marked like that from a jacket sleeve.