A smartwatch that costs a minimum of $349 should last at least a couple of generations. It should not die out of nowhere in just over a year. Or have its back plate fall off. Yes, accidents are inevitable, and for those mechanical human errors, users should at least have the opportunity to get their watches fixed.
Of course, smartwatches are fragile, and repairs are expensive across the board. But they’re still an option, and with insurance or protection plans, they may or may not destroy your wallet. Of course, they’re also notoriously difficult to repair, given the complexity of fitting a ton of components, including biosensing assemblies, into a cramped space.
But at the end of the day, a smartwatch buyer should not be handed a deal that is usually worse than a foldable phone, which itself costs an arm and a leg to fix or replace their flexible displays/hinges. Within Google’s ecosystem, smartwatches are an exquisitely crafted bad fruit, and depending on the country you live in, they should be untouchable.
Carrying forward a troubled legacy
Google recently confirmed that the Google Pixel Watch 3 is unrepairable. Just like the Pixel Watch 2. And the Pixel Watch before that. That means if your Pixel Watch 3 goes through an unfortunate accident (the kind of damage not covered by Google’s warranty), you can’t get it fixed — for cheap or otherwise.
Google didn’t provide us any explicit reason why it can’t repair the Pixel Watch, but the complexity of the internal hardware likely has something to do with it. Here’s what the folks over at iFixit wrote on its smartwatch repairability dashboard, which awarded the first Google Pixel Watch an abysmal score of 4 out of 10:
- No screws/clips means that without custom cut adhesive, the watch can’t be reliably reassembled after repair.
- No official repair parts or instructions are available.
You might also want to look at the engineering here. Compared to a rectangular smartwatch like the Apple Watch, designing and fitting components inside a round chassis is challenging, and so is making an LCD panel that is round and curved at the edges. One might ask: If Samsung can do it, why not Google?
I can’t comment on that. However, given the general status of the Pixel portfolio, especially from a non-U.S. perspective, Google is not investing the same kind of resources as Samsung in selling its hardware. “It’s a showcase of what Google software can truly accomplish. They’re not concerned with the numbers,” a market analyst recently told me.
In 2024, Google is bringing its Pixel products to more countries, both phones and markets. India is one of them. With the same caveat, unfortunately, that the Pixel Watch 3 can’t be repaired. But the market realities are dramatically different.
Different markets, different rules
In the U.S., you can buy the Pixel Preferred Care plan, which costs $4 per month or $89 for a two-year duration in one go. Once you buy this plan, screen replacements will cost you $29, while any other accidental damage will cost you $49 for repairs (per Google’s support page).
Just to be clear, the above costs are merely flat charges. They are not actual repair or service costs. That’s because, in the case of any hardware damage, you are actually getting a replacement unit from Google, albeit one that arrives without the charging puck or the band. What happens to the damaged unit?
We don’t know if Google can salvage something out of it. If you don’t have the Pixel Preferred care plan active for your Pixel Watch 3, you can opt for a mail-in replacement that allows you to buy a new unit for a discounted price. But there are a couple of big caveats here. First, Pixel Preferred Care is only available in four countries: the U.S., the U.K., Japan, and Canada.
Second, mail-in replacements for warranty-excluded units are only available in the U.S. and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa). It’s also worth noting that calling in for a replacement unit, especially for non-covered units, can be expensive. Depending on where you live, you can actually buy a new Pixel Watch for the same price as the quote.
The Pixel Watch 3 is available in 32 countries, but at least four of them do not offer the Pixel Preferred Plan or the mail-in replacement option. India happens to fall in that category. It’s the same market where the Pixel Watch 3 starts at roughly $476 instead of its usual $399 asking price, and there are no trade-in deals in place either to ease the sting on a buyer’s wallet.
And here’s the worst part: The Pixel Watch 3 is not officially available via the Google Store. Instead, it’s third-party retail partners that are carrying it in the country. “If you purchased your watch from a retail partner, you can add Preferred Care to your device within 30 days of purchase,” a Google U.S. spokesperson said in a statement to Digital Trends.
However, that option is not available everywhere. “Google does not offer the Preferred Care plan in India. The Pixel team is working hard to bring this to India in the near future,” a Google spokesperson from its India team tells Digital Trends. “At this point, our third-party retailers do not offer the Preferred Care Plan in India.”
In a nutshell, if I buy a Pixel Watch in India and it gets damaged, my only option is to pay for a new unit or let it sit as another glorious piece of e-waste in my drawer. For markets where the Pixel Preferred Care is not available — which number 28 out of 32 — getting a replacement unit for a “discounted” price is their only option.
Google has never publicly said what this “discounted” price for replacement Pixel Watch units actually is. The pricing situation with rival brands isn’t exactly a blessing, either. Samsung can charge up to $300 just for screen replacement.
The official repair quote for my Apple Watch Series 9 (41mm) in India was close to $530, enough to buy a new unit, but with Apple Care, I can cover it for about $120. Samsung Care+ also offers some semblance of a palatable repair service. The Pixel Watch 3 would just leave me hanging high and dry in India and in a few other countries, as well.
How can Google fix this?
It came as a surprise when Google supported Oregon’s right-to-repair bill — and even released a white paper documenting how it will ease repairs of electronic devices. Of course, the company even took a cheeky swipe at Apple, noting that Google doesn’t engage in “burdensome parts pairing or registration.” But here’s a crucial part from the bill:
“Fair and reasonable terms” means terms under which an original equipment manufacturer makes parts available directly or through an authorized service provider to an independent repair provider or an owner at costs and on terms that are equivalent to the most favorable costs and terms at which the original equipment manufacturer offers the parts to an authorized service provider and that do not impose a substantial condition, obligation or restriction that is not reasonably necessary to enable an independent repair provider or an owner to diagnose, maintain, repair or update consumer electronic equipment that the original equipment manufacturer makes or sells.
With respect to the Pixel Watch 3, Google currently seems to be fulfilling those obligations only partially. It’s worth mentioning that the bill, which is now law, only bans parts matching and related software checks for devices made after January 1, 2025. So, how exactly can Google fix the Pixel Watch 3’s repairability madness?
For starters, the company should offer the Pixel Preferred Care plan in every country where the Pixel Watch 3 is available. Likewise, extend the mail-in replacement option to all markets, directly or via retail partners. In lieu of that, the smartwatch is nothing more than a fancy wearable gadget that is merely an accidental bump away from becoming a piece of electronic junk. Given the complex engineering that goes into making a smartwatch, we can’t expect to come up with a repairability boon overnight.
However, partnering with companies like iFixit — which it already does for Pixel phones and tablets — to repair the Pixel Watch 3 would be a solid initiative. On the more ambitious side, Google could change the Pixel Watch’s fundamental shape to ease access to parts and make core repairs feasible. The two most recurring issues plaguing smartwatch users are a dead battery and a cracked screen. Google could, at the very least, ensure that these parts can be taken apart and replaced in case of damage.
I am not sure how the company intends to honor replacements at scale — with or without the Pixel Preferred Care plan — while ensuring a steady profit from a product category that is much more prone to damages or malfunctions than a Pixel phone. While doing so, Google should universally extend important after-sales courtesies like paid care plans and discounted replacements to all customers and not keep them limited to certain markets. It already stings that some of us have to pay a lot more for the Pixel Watch and still don’t get the same level of after-sales support as the U.S. market.
And, maybe next time, don’t expand the market footprint of a product without proper repair and servicing plans in place.