Google’s Pixel Watch 4 was announced back in August alongside the Pixel 10 family but only became available yesterday together with the Pixel 10 Pro Fold.
Today, the folks over at iFixit have released their teardown video of the Pixel Watch 4, and have rather surprisingly dubbed it the most repairable smartwatch ever.
You go into it unscrewing some exterior screws, which also operate a hinge mechanism inside the watch. Unlike the latest Apple Watch, the Pixel Watch 4 actually allows for “a real rear-entry design”.
To achieve all of this, Google has basically rethought the entire smartwatch architecture. The vibration motor is held down with screws and connects via pogo pins, and two of the motor’s screws actually double as battery screws.
You can swap out the Pixel Watch 4’s battery in just a few minutes. The screen is sealed with an O-ring gasket, which is replaceable and available for sale. This lets the watch achieve an IP68 dust and water resistance rating without gluing the screen, just using the gasket and screws. The board housing the SoC is also very easy to remove.
In the end, thanks to the extensive internal redesign, the Pixel Watch 4 earns a provisional repairability score of 9 out of 10 (0 would mean least repairable and 10 would be most repairable). That’s a pretty amazing achievement for something so small. iFixit calls the Pixel Watch 4’s design “thoughtful” and says it “seems built to be repaired”.