GatorAvalancheAcrylic you can polish out the scratches if they get them, mineral glass you cannot. Of course it also scratches very easily, so it's a toss up. Plexi and acrylic are coming back into fashion, you can shape the crystal into domes or box styles much more easlily than sapphire, so get that vintage look. You can find saphires with box domes, but usuallly expensive, like the Oris Diver 65 for instance...