Apple knows how important it is to have shatter and scratch resistant glass on your devices. A clear example is the Apple Watch screen. Glass Ion-X of the aluminum model scratches more easily than the sapphire screen of the titanium and steel models.
And to get stronger screens, you are helping the manufacturer Corning glass in the development of new, even harder crystals. You just invested $ 45 million in your research lab.
My first original Apple Watch (series 0) was made of steel, with a sapphire. I retired him at the age of three, with the screen completely pristine. The second was made of aluminum with the Ion-X screen. Within a week of wearing it, I already had the glass marked. I am very clear that the next one will be made of titanium, to return again to the indestructible sapphire screen.
With this simple example lived in the first person, it is appreciated how important is the resistance of the screen of a device to bumps and scratches. Apple knows this, and is helping its suppliers to discover more and more glass as much as possible resistant.
Apple just subsidized with other 45 million dollars, the R&D lab of your display supplier Corning Glass. He has been in charge of manufacturing the screens of the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch for a long time.
This new injection of funds is part of the "Apple Advanced Manufacturing Fund." An investment fund for the R&D of its suppliers. In it, the company invested 200 million dollars in 2017 and 250 million more in 2019.
This is how the "Ceramic Shield" glass of the iPhone 12 was achieved
Thanks to this investment, Apple and Corning Glass developed a new type of high-strength glass, known as «ceramic shield«, And that it is already riding in the iPhone 12.
It is a new type of glass made with crystals of nanoceramics. These displays are manufactured at Corning's plant in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. So we will see if with this new injection of capital, they manage to "invent" a new screen for the Apple Watch also made of ceramic. It would do you very well.