The Google Pixel Watch 4 may actually be repairable
If something breaks on your Google Pixel Watch 3 (or any older model), there are no repair options: you’ll have to replace it. That less-than-ideal situation could change, however, by the time the Google Pixel Watch 4 comes out next year.
As reported by WiredNew comments from Nicole Azores, Google’s manager of government affairs and public policy, suggest that Google is considering tweaking the future design of the Pixel Watch to make it more repairable.
“Watches and wearables are still quite new and we are thinking about how we can make this repairable,” Azores said during the Climate Week NYC panel hosted by Back Market“We want to ensure that all of our products are ultimately repairable.”
“I think watches as a category are so new that there are a number of design elements that we need to take into account when fixing them,” Azores said. However, Google has yet to receive an official response on the matter.
Warranties and repairs
As you can tell from our Google Pixel Watch 3 review , this is the first in the series to come in two sizes. Additionally, the smartwatch features a brighter display and an improved internal processor compared to the Google Pixel Watch 2.
Pixel Watches come with a one-year warranty, so you can swap them in for a free replacement if something breaks that isn’t your fault. You can also opt to extend that coverage with a Preferred Care plan, which comes at an additional cost.
However, if you accidentally drop your wearable and the screen breaks, you can’t take it to a repair shop the same way you can a Pixel phone. That’s bad for both the user and the environment in terms of e-waste.
There’s no timeline for this change yet, and given the lead times for new gadgets, it’s optimistic to expect the Pixel Watch 4 to have improved reliability in time. If Google sticks to this year’s schedule next year, we should see it by August 2025.