zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

A humorous post below involves whether sapphires are in fact crystal(s). I took the liberty of looking several things up in the dictionary, and here's what I came up with. I started with 'crystal'.

1. A clear transparent mineral, a kind of quartz. 2. A piece of crystal cut to a special shape for use or ornament. 3. A glass of great brilliance and transparency, used especially in making drinking glasses. 4. The glass over the face of a watch ah ha!

So then I go look up sapphire.

1. A transparent bright-blue or colorless precious stone that is a variety of corundum.

So now I go look up corundum.

1. An extremely hard mineral, aluminum oxide, sometimes containing iron, magnesia, or silica. Dark-colored corundum is used for polishing and grinding. Sapphires and rubies are transparent forms of corundum.

So, where does that leave us. Is crystal simply a figure of speech now as watches did in fact at one time have a 'crystal' covering? It would appear from the dictionary anyway, that sapphire is NOT a form of crystal but a corundum. Is it just tradation rather than fact, that we call it a crystal?

Should we now go to the watchmaker and say, "My corundum is scratched?" :))