Fragmentation tests in the uniaxial mode were performed on poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) films coated with a 100 nm thin silicon oxide layer. The coating’s fragmentation process was analyzed in Light of the mechanical behavior of the polymer substrate. It was shown that, upon unloading samples strained to less than 4% nominal strain, strain recovery leads to the closure of coating cracks. The usual fragmentation diagram, which shows the crack density(CD) versus applied strain, was used to identify the various energy dissipation mechanisms controlling the fragmentation process. An alternative presentation of CD versus true stress provided accurate measurements of both fragmentation and saturation onsets. The interfacial strength was modeled from the CD at saturation according to the Kelly-Tyson approach, including a Weibull distribution of the coating strength. The prediction was compared to the substrate shear stress at saturation. Effects of substrate yield, temperature, and molecular orientation are discussed. It was shown that the coating deposition by evaporation on the PET substrate did not induce structural changes at the polymer interface, whereas heat treatments increased the polymer crystallinity in the interfacial zone, resulting in higher interfacial strength.