One More Thing . . . 4 Materials that Make Apple’s New Smartwatch Possible

On Tuesday, Apple, after over a year of rumors, speculation, and anticipation, finally released its first new product since the iPad: the Apple Watch. The Apple Watch launches the company into an arena already populated by offerings from Samsung, and Google. Is Apple Watch poised to revolutionize wearable technology and become the next in Apple’s iconic line of category-defining gadgets? Not without mining.

Many mined materials help make the Apple Watch possible, but there are four in particular I’d like to focus on: sapphire glass, stainless steel, aluminum, and gold. Each is prominently featured in the device and plays an important role in making it a reality.

1. Sapphire Glass: The face/display of the Apple Watch, rather than being constructed out of ion-strengthened glass like the iPhone, uses sapphire crystal. Of course, sapphires are a gem that must be mined, but why are they a useful material for glass displays? For one thing, they’re transparent, but the biggest reason is durability, plain and simple. Sapphire is second only to diamond as the hardest naturally occurring element and this means that a glass display made of sapphire is impervious to the kinds of scuffs and scratches watches typically accumulate from being worn every day. Thanks to sapphire glass, the Apple Watch can remain scratch-free and beautiful.
2. Stainless Steel: The casing of the Apple Watch is made of stainless steel. Additionally, many of the wrist-straps and buckles made by Apple for their new device also use stainless steel. This material, an alloy derived from iron ore which must be mined, keeps a shiny, aesthetically pleasing appearance while also being durable enough to protect the internal sensors, chips, and electronics of the watch.
3. Aluminum: The Apple Watch Sport collection replaces the stainless steel casing with aluminum. For a style of watch designed specifically to be used for sports, fitness, and other physical activities, this provides the watch with a durable material which is much lighter than stainless steel and so more suitable for use in activities where someone doesn’t want a heavy weight on their wrist.
4. Gold: The Apple Watch Edition collection replaces both stainless steel and aluminum with a more luxurious material. The 18 karat gold used for the Apple Watch Edition is specially engineered by Apple to be twice as hard as natural gold, important for protecting those internal components, but it also affords a more upscale style to the watch, ideal for appealing to high-end markets. Gold also plays an important role inside the Apple Watch due to its outstanding ductility (i.e. ability to be molded and stretched) and conductivity. The computer chip that drives the device and quite literally makes it a “smart” watch uses gold extensively to conduct electrical signals and charges.

Looking at the newly-introduced Apple Watch, it’s easy to see that Apple has been working for a long time perfecting the product in order to meet the high standard of design and capability they’re advertising. While Apple undoubtedly needed the engineering and design expertise of hundreds if not thousands of people, it also needed these materials provided by mining if its smartwatch was ever going to be a reality.