Google says it can’t fix Pixel Watches, please just buy a new one

Google makes a big deal out of its partnership with iFixit and the availability of replacement parts for its products, but one Google product that doesn't seem fixable is the Pixel Watch. After spotting some posts from Pixel Watch users seeking a remedy after cracking the glass and coming up with no clear answers, The Verge got Google to confirm that, even 11 months after launch, there is no repair plan right now. Google can't fix your watch. There are no parts.

A Google spokesperson told The Verge "At this moment, we don’t have any repair option for the Google Pixel Watch. If your watch is damaged, you can contact the Google Pixel Watch Customer Support Team to check your replacement options."

Damage like a cracked display isn't covered under any kind of warranty, so buying a new device is the only official option. And with no parts stream to power the unofficial repair industry, the only way to actually fix a Pixel Watch would be to destroy another one. That's a repair model that can work for very popular devices where there are many devices to salvage, but with Pixel Watches being a rarely sold item, you'll be hard-pressed to find any spare parts. That's a shame because iFixit's repair analysis found a device that wasn't all that hard to take apart, and it wouldn't be difficult to replace the screen if you could get one.

The Pixel Watch really needs repair options, too. The whole top half of the watch is one big glass hemisphere, so it's not difficult to bang one of the glass corners into something and shatter the watch. This might all seem like it's against the spirit of Google's big repairability announcement in 2022, but that blog post says the program is for Pixel phones, not any of the other stuff Google sells. With the Pixel Watch 2 coming out soon, we'll be sure to ask Google if there are any repair plans this time.