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Comment by Yossarrian22 | Hacker News Reader

I’m surprised nobody has done a phone screen yet

Large single crystal diamond, what is required for a nice transparent screen, is still quite expensive. This article is about polycrystalline diamond, which is not really that transparent, but is nearly as good at thermal conduction as monocrystalline diamond.

Your comment reminds me of apple's attempt to make sapphire screens. That didn't turn out so well.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/10/sapphire-...

Apple still uses sapphire screens on the nicer watches.

I have a Garmin with a sapphire screen. I've worn it every day for over 5 years, working on cars, in the garden, snorkelling on coral reefs.

In short, I my watch has NOT had an easy life. I've made no attempt to protect it or taken it off for anything except charging. There is barely a mark on the screen. A sapphire screen will be a hard requirement for my next watch.

I wear mine while rock climbing. The watch has been put through a lot of beating against all kinds of rock. I've already chewed through 3 straps on this watch. The titanium case is lightly scratched, but the screen is absolutely pristine!

This is my second sapphire Garmin, and it's absolutely worth the premium.

> I've already chewed through 3 straps on this watch.

Ever consider carrying a protein bar or two?

Even if that were cheap I don't think diamond would excel in this use case. It's of course extremely hard but I'd expect that it would be extremely prone to cracking. In addition the high index of refraction would make the diamond screen very reflective and you would need some fancy coating which of course wouldn't be as strong as diamond.

I don't know why you expect it would be prone to cracking, but it isn't - or else a wedding ring would have a life expectancy shorter than the average marriage.

As for a reflective screen, the term for that is "shiny", and could be marketed as desirable - it signals that the owner has an expensive watch. It wouldn't interfere with use, unless the user was wearing a bright headlamp.

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