Our users want products that are not only light and portable, but also durable. The high-purity titanium alloys used in Garmin's watch casings and bands allow us to deliver the lightest possible products. Meanwhile, our watches feature Amorphous Diamond-Like Coating (ADLC), a technology typically reserved for only the highest-end timepieces, which delivers a watch surface that is extremely hard wearing and scratch resistant. What is the key to ADLC's toughness? The answer lies in how carbon atoms behave differently when they are arranged differently.
The phenomenom of 'allotropy', seen throughout the natural world, refers to how materials made from the same element manifest different physical properities when subject to different patterns of physical organisation. For example, while both diamond and graphite are composed of carbon atoms, diamond is one of nature's hardest materials while graphite is extremely soft. The difference lies in the unique ways in which each material's atoms are organised. The carbon atoms in diamond are joined to neighboring atoms with four bonds. This creates a three-dimensional net-shaped sp3 structure that is extremely hard. The carbon atoms in graphite, on the other hand, are linked by only three bonds, resulting in flat sheets of hexagonal sp2 structures. The intermolecular force between each of these layers is weak, resulting in a structure that is loose and easily shifted. Graphites resulting softness and smoothness have led it to be commonly used for lubricants and pencil leads.
Garmin's ADLC coating technology adds hydrogen atoms to carbon in order to altering the arrangements of the atoms. It's atomic arrangement combines properties of diamond and graphite, delivering a hardness over ten times that of 18K gold and surpassing that of regular titanium carbide or titanium oxide coatings. This means extreme protection possessing an attractive luster, smooth, tough, and corosion-resistant. With Garmin's watch range you will be able to meet any challenge.