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CHINA’s sapphire industry is due for a major boom off the back of the Apple Watch, which features a watch cover made of sapphire glass.
According to LEDinside, while sapphire glass is already used by a number of luxury-grade watches and high-end smartphones, the attention and volume brought on by Apple’s use of the material will be “game-changing” for China’s sapphire industry. Sapphire manufacturing will become a globally competitive section of China’s materials industry.
LEDinside estimates the Apple Watch to ship a total of 20 million sets in 2015. Only the cheapest Apple Watch Sport series will not use sapphire on the watch’s cover display.
To be fitted on the cover of an Apple Watch, the sapphire glass must go through a double-sided polishing and 2.5D process. As such, the sapphire watch cover, as supplied, is thicker compared to that of other products. LEDinside projects a total of 30.8 million millimetres of two-inch equivalent sapphire ingot will be used for the Apple Watch covers in 2015. This accounts for 18% of sapphire ingots produced worldwide for the entire year.
Facing this new surging demand, the sapphire industry can look forward to a dramatic improvement in the market demand and supply.
The sapphire covers for Apple’s smart watches are sourced from two Chinese suppliers: Lens Technology and Biel Crystal.
Chinese sapphire suppliers down the line are working closely with these two major glass suppliers during the R&D phase, in order to improve their yield rates, production and processing, so they can maximise benefits from the Apple Watch-related orders.