Apple has been testing sapphire. It has been in the cover for the camera since the iPhone 5 over two years ago. What is interesting is that they have gone back to glass for the lens cover in the new phones. My wife had a problem with her iPhone 5 shortly after purchase. After she dropped it on the floor (not especially hard) photos had these small, magenta flecks that no amount of cleaning could get rid of. Apple swapped it out no problem, but when I first heard that they moved back to glass for the new camera in the 6 series, I wondered if they decided that sapphire just wasn't going to work for this use case.
I suspect, they've learned quite a bit from the sapphire cover on the camera, hence their comfort in deploying it to the higher end watch models.
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Apple has been testing sapphire. It has been in the cover for the camera since the iPhone 5 over two years ago. What is interesting is that they have gone back to glass for the lens cover in the new phones. My wife had a problem with her iPhone 5 shortly after purchase. After she dropped it on the floor (not especially hard) photos had these small, magenta flecks that no amount of cleaning could get rid of. Apple swapped it out no problem, but when I first heard that they moved back to glass for the new camera in the 6 series, I wondered if they decided that sapphire just wasn't going to work for this use case.
I suspect, they've learned quite a bit from the sapphire cover on the camera, hence their comfort in deploying it to the higher end watch models.
They have not gone back to glass
http://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/