Well before CPF came to be, I was messing with titanium and had gotten into making some etched and anodized earrings of all things and came to be a customer at Frei Borell for jewelry tools. They sell watch replacement parts and tools as well and I purchased a sapphire watch crystal from them. It was my intent to someday make a titanium light using this crystal as a window for it. I had a notion of the ultimate flashlight and it would include the ultimate window material which I considered sapphire crystal to be. CPF came along as did high power LED's. Initially though, the LED's were so inefficient that they generated a lot of heat and titanium was hardly the material of choice for a flashlight body because of this. But at some point I realized it was time to make a titanium light with a sapphire window and I did. I don't know of any quality watch and especially a dive watch that doesn't sport a sapphire crystal and this is a component that is more exposed to knocks and abuse than the window of a flashlight. I wore a old Rolex all through highschool, college and on into my adult life and I never took it off and it got a lot of abuse. The crystal held up amazingly well. What beter choice for a durable window of a flashlight is there? Sapphire is not as efficient at light transmission as some of the glass that can be used for windows but I am willing to sacrifice some light for a window that won't break or scratch like the glass will.
