A high-hardness transparent glass ceramic and a preparation method therefor, wherein the components by weight percentage include: 55.0%-70.0% of SiO2, 15.0%-20.0% of Al2O3, 0%-10.0% of MgO, and 0%-12.5% of ZnO, necessarily including one of MgO or ZnO, and the crystallized glass thereof contains microcrystals of spinel crystal. In the present invention, a suitable precursor glass is subjected to thermal treatment, and microcrystals are separated from the glass substrate by crystallization, producing a glass ceramic having a Moh's hardness greater than 7 and a visible-light transparency rate greater than 80% through 1 mm of the glass. The glass ceramic of the invention overcomes the problem that ordinary optical glass is easy to be scratched. The present glass ceramic can be served as protective face for mobile phones, protective glass for optical instruments and in communications equipment, substrate for magnetic disks, LCD panel, or protective glass for other optoelectronic devices.