Google has confirmed that the Pixel Watch 3 is unable to be repaired. If you have a hardware problem, you’ll need to get it replaced. Nobody should be surprised because this is the third version of the Pixel Watch and the third one that “can’t” be repaired.
While I’m sure someone with enough determination and a steady hand could take a Pixel Watch 3 apart to replace broken or faulty components, realistically, Google is telling the truth when it says it can’t be repaired. All wearables are packed full of small parts bonded together in a way that requires machinery to assemble, so cracking them open isn’t easy. It would be far more cost-effective to offer a replacement. While Samsung and Apple may offer some types of service for their wearables, it’s not cheap. It can’t be cheap.
Something still feels off about this whole thing to me, though. Google suggests you purchase Google Preferred Care insurance if you buy a device from the Google Store. Like insurance offerings from companies like Best Buy or your phone carrier, this isn’t crazy expensive: Preferred care for a Pixel Watch 3 is $89 for two years or $4 per month.
I dunno if it’s worth it to you because I’m not you. You decide how to spend your money and if you think you’ll want or need something like device insurance. If you say yes nobody will think twice about it. A lot of people do it.
I do have a thought or two about the whole thing. I think it’s insane to charge customers an insurance premium on a relatively “cheap” device and then charge them if they need to use it. If you break the screen on your Pixel Watch, you’re paying $89 for the insurance plus $49 to get a new watch, and unless you read about it somewhere, you might think your insurance covers the replacement. Remember when insurance did crazy things like that?
Watch On
I do not like this system. Google could give you a total coverage amount like you see in car insurance policies and none of us would like it, but at least we would know exactly what we are paying for. Or Google could try to incorporate service costs into the price itself and nobody would be happy because the unit price goes up by $10.
Or, now hear me out: Google could build a device it could fix. You could fix the display on the first Pixel Watch if you could find one and you were careful, even though Google said it wasn’t possible. If a random dude on Reddit can do it, surely Google could manage it. Heck, they could hire the random dude from Reddit.
“Unfixable” devices are a thing because tech companies are convinced that everything needs to be thin, light, and waterproof. Maybe they are right, and that’s what is best for the people buying them.
However, companies have found ways to make phones thinner than ever while making them more repairable, so it is possible. This might trickle down to wearables as the techniques used to assemble them are refined. Technology works like that; not all the engineering goes into product design, and how things are built is important, too.
In any case, be sure you know you can’t get your Pixel Watch 3 fixed, and even if you spend the money on “GoogleCare,” you’ll still have to pay to get it replaced. Let’s hope that the Pixel Watch 3 is built tough enough so that things like broken screens aren’t very common.
