Apple Watch Series 10 teardown: still difficult to repair
Apple delights repairers with numerous improvements to the iPhone 16, but the Apple Watch hardly changes in Series 10. iFixIt criticizes this.
Apple Watch Series 10 teardown: Battery glued as usual – the case too, of course.
(Image: iFixIt)
The new 2024 iPhone models show that Apple is also able to make its ultra-thin devices easier to repair: the 16 and 16 Plus as well as the 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max have been made more accessible, and the battery of the standard models can even be removed by applying voltage. So it would seem logical that the Apple Watch Series 10 would also bring improvements for repairers? Unfortunately, this is not the case. This is shown by a recent teardown by repair specialist iFixIt. In it, Apple only achieved 3 out of 10 possible "repairability" points, while the new iPhones scored 7 out of 10.
Glue, so much glue
The main problem remains opening the device –including an enormous number of screws and clips, which require extreme sensitivity due to the size. To open the case, the Apple Watch Series 10 must first be warmed up. A spudger is then used to open it and separate the display from the case. This alone should be difficult for anyone with a coarse motor due to the low tolerances. Then there is a lot of screwing and tweezing to get to important parts such as the battery, the SoC or (at the bottom) the sensor unit on the back.
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The battery is fully glued, so there are no pull tabs to remove it, nor is it possible to detach it by applying voltage. According to iFixIt, once the sensor unit is broken, it is virtually impossible to replace, meaning that it could be a total loss. In most cases, Apple is unlikely to repair the Series 10 anyway and will simply exchange it for a replacement device if the customer has a defect. The Series 10 comes with a 327 mAh battery in a soft pouch. The brighter OLED display, which is also supposed to allow sideways reading, was difficult to distinguish from its predecessor when viewed under a microscope.
Assembly will be difficult
In addition to the fact that opening the Apple Watch is still very difficult even ten years after the first model, the main problem after the repair is reassembling the parts correctly and, above all, gluing them back together, is something only experts can do. And even then, water resistance is unlikely to be guaranteed due to the tight tolerances.
It remains to be seen whether Apple – will come up with improvements here, also under pressure from the EU – at least the replacement of the battery and OLED should be part of the standard repair capability. Until then, the Apple Watch will unfortunately remain a (climate-neutral, according to the manufacturer) product without a "right to repair".
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