Apple Watch Teardown

Some individual parts of the Apple Watch

We've made a little look inside the Apple Watch. We show you two important components and find out how difficult future repairs will be.

Required tools

Heat gun

Heat gun

You can use a heat gun to heat parts that are glued on so they’re easier to remove. In most cases, you can also use a hairdryer.
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For storing screws

For storing screws

We recommend storing your screws so you don’t mix up the various screws and small parts.
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Pick Set

Pick Set

You need a flat but stable tool such as a pick to pry out parts that are glued in place.
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Steel Laboratory Spatula

Steel Laboratory Spatula

You need a flat and sturdy prying tool to disconnect glued parts.
on Amazon

Show all replacement parts for the Apple Watch

Steps

6 Steps

Technical details

Step 1

Lifting the display

Step 2

Disconnecting the display

Step 3

Removing the battery

Step 4

Removing the NFC antenna

Step 5

Summary

Step 6

Getting started with the repair of your Apple Watch

If you get stuck or have questions, you can post a comment. We’d be happy to help.

6 steps

Technical details
Apple wants to revolutionize the new wearables market with the Apple Watch. The watch is available in two sizes and various versions.

Key data about the Apple Watch:

38 mm or 42 mm enclosure

7000-series aluminum, silver

Ion-X glass

Back of enclosure made of composite materials

Digital Crown

Retina display with Force Touch

Heart rate sensor, accelerometer and gyroscope

Ambient light sensor

Speaker and microphone

Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n 2.4 GHz)

Bluetooth 4.0

Battery life of up to 18 hours

Water-resistant
Lifting the display
Now we can finally start taking things apart. Since we can’t find any screws on the Apple Watch, it seems pretty clear that the display is glued on.
To soften the glue and make it less sticky, we carefully heat the outer edges of the display with a heat gun.
Now we need a little suction cup, a pick, and a very thin laboratory spatula. We press gently to lift the display, while inserting the pick between the display and the aluminum frame.
Disconnecting the display
Now we get our first look inside the cable. The touchscreen’s and LCD’s cables are attached to another ribbon cable. There’s also a metal bracket over the two plug connections to make sure vibration or shocks don’t cause the connections to come undone.

Removing the battery
Now we come to a component we’re sure to have to replace a lot in the future: the Apple Watch’s 246 mAh battery, which is supposed to offer a battery life of up to 18 hours. This little battery lets you talk on the phone for 3 hours, listen to music for 6.5 hours or have your watch on standby for 72 hours. The battery is only lightly glued in the enclosure, and you can easily remove it with a spudger. The only other thing you have to do is disconnect it from the cable.
Removing the NFC antenna
The antenna could get damaged when you remove the display if part of the antenna stays on the aluminum frame and the other part sticks to the display. Then the antenna gets torn in half, but you can attach it again with instant glue.

To remove the antenna, you need a tri-wing screwdriver.
Summary
The inside of Apple’s first smartwatch is a surprise. It’s not designed for you to repair it yourself, but you can remove the display and battery pretty easily and – what’s very important – independently of each other. This is good for repairs in general because you can trace most problems back to these parts.
But you’ll have your work cut out for you if you want to replace other parts. For one thing, you’ll need very small tri-wing screwdrivers, and for another, the S1, the heart of the Apple Watch, has several soldered connections, making it virtually impossible to remove.
The display is glued on. With a little practice, you can remove it

The battery is only lightly glued in the enclosure

You can only remove other parts with a tri-wing screwdriver

It’s almost impossible to remove the logic board without damaging it