The Apple Watch Sport version features a new display material called Ion X glass, which claims to be significantly harder and more durable than standard glass. Some speculate that it's just a rebranded version of Gorilla Glass, while others believe it's a new product from Apple. Unlike Sapphire-coated displays used in more expensive Apple watches, Ion X glass is nowhere near as hard.

The name "Ion X" refers to the process by which the glass itself is fortified on a molecular level, creating a tougher surface layer. This style of glass has several upsides when compared to Sapphire-coated displays. Firstly, it's cheaper and lighter, making it more suitable for casual wearers. Additionally, it's more flexible, reducing the likelihood of shattering.

To test the durability of Ion X glass, various objects were used, including a key, a knife, steel wool, sandpaper, and hardcore sandpaper with aluminum oxide as the abrasive material. The results showed that the Ion X glass was resistant to scratching by keys, knives, and coins, but not to more aggressive abrasives like sandpaper.

A key was pushed against the 42mm face of the Apple Watch Sport, resulting in a small scratch, but nothing significant. A knife attempted to scratch the surface, but again, no damage was done. Steel wool proved to be ineffective, as did any other attempt to scratch the glass. However, when hardcore sandpaper with aluminum oxide was used, the Ion X glass started to show signs of wear, albeit not as much as expected.

The creator of MKBHD tested the Apple Watch Sport's scratch resistance using different types of sandpaper and even compared it to a scratched iPhone 6 display set by his friend. The result showed that the Ion X glass was no match for these abrasives.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up guys Lou here back with another video and today I've got something exclusive for you as you know there's been an enormous amount of hype around the brand new Apple watch but in advance of actually receiving the watch I actually got the opportunity to check out the surface material that will be used for the face of the Apple watch sport which will likely be the most popular version of the Apple watch so I received these two components here from the legendary Sunny Dix and as you can see they represent both Apple watch sizes the 42 mm as well as the 38 mm now the Apple watch sport version does not feature a sapphire cated display or glass instead it's using a new product potentially new or rebranded product from Apple called ion X glass now this ion X glass claims to be significantly harder and more durable than standard glass somewhere in the neighborhood of Gorilla Glass some are even speculating that this ion X glass is just a rebranded version of Gorilla Glass that Apple has been using on devices for a long time that said it's nowhere near the hardness of sapphire which will be used in the more expensive Apple watches so of course the question concern is will the Apple watch sport stand up to scratching from various materials so in front of me I have a couple of different items in order to experiment now you might be wondering what's with this name ion X well the name is actually referring to the process by which the glass itself is fortified on a molecular level this is what creates this tougher surface layer when compared with normal glass now there are actually a couple of upsides to using this style of glass when compared to something that's Sapphire coated not only is this cheaper and lighter it's also a little bit more flexible So in theory it should be less prone to shattering when compared with sapphire okay so I have a number of objects in front of me here that would normally concern you if they got near your brand new device or Apple watch for that matter I've got a key a knife some steel wool some sandpaper and some more hardcore sandpaper this one is using aluminum oxide as the abrasive material this should probably do some damage to this glass aluminum oxide okay so first up we're going to try out the least dangerous of the items I'll be testing this is a simple key for a mailbox I believe so let's go ahead and attempt to scratch up this 42 mm face oo all right I'll push as hard as I can here pretty impressive so far absolutely no scratching more fingerprints than any anything else okay a key is not going to be sharp enough hard enough to scratch this ion X material there you go next up we have my trusty little knife here let's go ahead and check this out probably scratch my table long before I'll scratch this surface no not at all just sliding right on top absolutely no problem inspect again nothing nothing from the knife either so let's step the game up and move on to the steel wool not a chance steel wool better go back to washing dishes son next up the first sandpaper ooh now that seems like we are making some progress here yes indeed ladies and gentlemen now I want to give a shout out real quick to my good friend MKBHD about a year ago he stepped the scratch game up with some sandpaper on what was the original iPhone 6 display setting The Benchmark for scratch test but this is demolishing it yeah scratching it up like crazy see it there so yeah with some sandpaper we're definitely scratching it up and let's go ahead and grab the hardcore sandpaper oh god listen to that noise okay now we are completely marked up I'm going to put this orange back underneath so you can see that we are completely marked up there now something to note here if we were dealing with pure Sapphire neither of these two surfaces these two sandpapers would be capable of scratching it so as suspected the ion X material the gorilla glass like material nowhere near as scratch resistant as Sapphire but we didn't expect any different and it's on a $350 watch compared with some of the far more expensive ones in order to get into the sapphire coating you'd be looking at the much more expensive Apple watch or watch Edition don't keep sandpaper near your brand new Apple watch sport or Apple watch for that matter but as you can see it did very well against keys and knives and certainly coins so in everyday usage this will not necessarily be how your watch turns out that said when you're talking about longevity there is a reason why watch manufacturers have been using sapphire crystal for a very long time if you look at any expensive watch the vast majority of expensive watches have a sapphire crystal and those things can go scratch free for 15 plus years so there you have it all right guys that wraps up this this video I hope you appreciated it if you did make sure to leave a thumbs up down below also as mentioned I've got an Apple Watch shipping to myself on Friday so expect some coverage on the device as soon as it arrives if you're not a subscriber go ahead and click that button so you don't miss out on any of this new or exclusive content thanks again for watching and I'll catch you on the next episode laterwhat's up guys Lou here back with another video and today I've got something exclusive for you as you know there's been an enormous amount of hype around the brand new Apple watch but in advance of actually receiving the watch I actually got the opportunity to check out the surface material that will be used for the face of the Apple watch sport which will likely be the most popular version of the Apple watch so I received these two components here from the legendary Sunny Dix and as you can see they represent both Apple watch sizes the 42 mm as well as the 38 mm now the Apple watch sport version does not feature a sapphire cated display or glass instead it's using a new product potentially new or rebranded product from Apple called ion X glass now this ion X glass claims to be significantly harder and more durable than standard glass somewhere in the neighborhood of Gorilla Glass some are even speculating that this ion X glass is just a rebranded version of Gorilla Glass that Apple has been using on devices for a long time that said it's nowhere near the hardness of sapphire which will be used in the more expensive Apple watches so of course the question concern is will the Apple watch sport stand up to scratching from various materials so in front of me I have a couple of different items in order to experiment now you might be wondering what's with this name ion X well the name is actually referring to the process by which the glass itself is fortified on a molecular level this is what creates this tougher surface layer when compared with normal glass now there are actually a couple of upsides to using this style of glass when compared to something that's Sapphire coated not only is this cheaper and lighter it's also a little bit more flexible So in theory it should be less prone to shattering when compared with sapphire okay so I have a number of objects in front of me here that would normally concern you if they got near your brand new device or Apple watch for that matter I've got a key a knife some steel wool some sandpaper and some more hardcore sandpaper this one is using aluminum oxide as the abrasive material this should probably do some damage to this glass aluminum oxide okay so first up we're going to try out the least dangerous of the items I'll be testing this is a simple key for a mailbox I believe so let's go ahead and attempt to scratch up this 42 mm face oo all right I'll push as hard as I can here pretty impressive so far absolutely no scratching more fingerprints than any anything else okay a key is not going to be sharp enough hard enough to scratch this ion X material there you go next up we have my trusty little knife here let's go ahead and check this out probably scratch my table long before I'll scratch this surface no not at all just sliding right on top absolutely no problem inspect again nothing nothing from the knife either so let's step the game up and move on to the steel wool not a chance steel wool better go back to washing dishes son next up the first sandpaper ooh now that seems like we are making some progress here yes indeed ladies and gentlemen now I want to give a shout out real quick to my good friend MKBHD about a year ago he stepped the scratch game up with some sandpaper on what was the original iPhone 6 display setting The Benchmark for scratch test but this is demolishing it yeah scratching it up like crazy see it there so yeah with some sandpaper we're definitely scratching it up and let's go ahead and grab the hardcore sandpaper oh god listen to that noise okay now we are completely marked up I'm going to put this orange back underneath so you can see that we are completely marked up there now something to note here if we were dealing with pure Sapphire neither of these two surfaces these two sandpapers would be capable of scratching it so as suspected the ion X material the gorilla glass like material nowhere near as scratch resistant as Sapphire but we didn't expect any different and it's on a $350 watch compared with some of the far more expensive ones in order to get into the sapphire coating you'd be looking at the much more expensive Apple watch or watch Edition don't keep sandpaper near your brand new Apple watch sport or Apple watch for that matter but as you can see it did very well against keys and knives and certainly coins so in everyday usage this will not necessarily be how your watch turns out that said when you're talking about longevity there is a reason why watch manufacturers have been using sapphire crystal for a very long time if you look at any expensive watch the vast majority of expensive watches have a sapphire crystal and those things can go scratch free for 15 plus years so there you have it all right guys that wraps up this this video I hope you appreciated it if you did make sure to leave a thumbs up down below also as mentioned I've got an Apple Watch shipping to myself on Friday so expect some coverage on the device as soon as it arrives if you're not a subscriber go ahead and click that button so you don't miss out on any of this new or exclusive content thanks again for watching and I'll catch you on the next episode later\n"