Google is hosting its annual Pixel event on August 20, which will likely feature the Pixel 10 series and the Pixel Watch 4. The new Pixel phones are expected to retain the physical design of last year's phones, but a new report claims Google's smartwatch is getting an important hardware upgrade—it may finally be repairable.
Google has stuck with the same design for all three generations of the Pixel Watch, making changes only to internal components, displays, and charging. Even with the year-to-year design consistency, Google has neglected to make replacement parts available—not to consumers and not to repair shops. A report from Android Headlines claims that Google will make changes to the construction that will allow for repairs.
The Pixel Watch, Watch 2, and the current Watch 3 have the same sleek construction, featuring a curved glass cover that merges seamlessly with the aluminum housing. It looks great, but there's no easy way to disassemble it. Even if you manage to get inside, it's nigh impossible to find replacement parts. We don't yet know if the supposed redesign will make the Pixel Watch 4 look different, but the report claims it has been designed specifically with repairs in mind.
This would be an important upgrade, even if it's not flashy. That glass dome on Google's watches is just begging to get cracked or scratched—it's standard Gorilla Glass rather than the sapphire glass you see on Apple and Samsung watches. For the first three models, a cracked screen or dissolving glue on the bottom has meant that the watch was effectively e-waste. Even if you were willing to pay Google to repair it, that was not an option.
Google never had a satisfactory answer for this approach to wearables. In lieu of repairs, it offered a protection plan, which guaranteed you a replacement watch if yours was damaged. For $4 per month and $49 per incident, Google would simply send a new watch. And it would actually be new; there are no officially refurbished Pixel Watches because Google doesn't repair them.
Not supporting repairs was a bizarre decision for a company that so often promotes its commitment to sustainability. Google has, at times, fallen short of those ideals, perhaps most notably with the defective batteries in its A-series Pixel phones. But that's at least theoretically an unforeseeable outcome. Google intentionally designed the Pixel Watches such that they could not be repaired.
Google should never have released a single watch that couldn't be repaired, let alone three of them. Hopefully, this report is accurate, and Google will right this wrong with the Pixel Watch 4.
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