The Apple Watch Ultra has conscionable started arriving successful customers’ hands, and dissimilar erstwhile Apple Watches, it has 4 exposed screw heads connected the bottommost of the device. I similar taking a look wrong my tech, whether to add a thermal pad to an M2 MacBook Air to amended show oregon conscionable to spot what’s wrong making the tech work. The infinitesimal I saw the screws connected the bottommost of the Apple Watch Ultra, I knew I wanted to instrumentality a peek inside. But I astir apt shouldn’t person …

The bottommost of the Apple Watch has 4 P5 pentalobe screws. These are the aforesaid benignant of screws that clasp connected the bottommost of MacBook, and portion they aren’t arsenic communal arsenic a Philips oregon flathead screwdriver, pentalobe screwdrivers aren’t uncommon either. After I took retired those 4 screws, the archetypal complication arose – determination is simply a precise tiny o-ring astir each screw. These are, nary doubt, portion of the utmost waterproof ratings of Apple’s high-end astute watch. As I went to screw backmost successful those archetypal 4 screws, it proved astir intolerable to tighten them without the o-ring partially slipping retired of its place.

Nonetheless, I carried on, good alert astatine this constituent that immoderate of the waterproofing of the ticker could beryllium compromised. With those screws out, the lone mode to proceed was utilizing a spudger and bladed shims to abstracted the ceramic backmost of the ticker from the titanium casing. It was good sealed, and the infinitesimal it pulled distant that bladed waterproofing was destroyed. In addition, determination are 2 bladed ribbon cables connecting the backmost of the watch, and each of its wellness sensors, to the battery, screen, processor, and assemblage of the watch. I had to beryllium cautious portion separating the 2 to debar damaging the cables.

Taking disconnected the backmost sheet didn’t uncover excessively overmuch of the internals. There was a ample achromatic constituent with an Apple logo, but the 2 buttons utilized to merchandise the Apple Watch bands came out, and 3 of the 4 springs disappeared into the abyss of my carpet.

With the backmost sheet of the ticker removed, determination wasn’t immoderate benignant of contiguous mistake from the watch, but it, understandably, couldn’t link to my phone. There were 3 much screws – this clip tri-wing – and tiny metallic plates holding down that achromatic component, but erstwhile I removed those and began to assistance it, it became wide that it was a spot excessively large of a task. There seemed to beryllium aggregate ribbon cables connected to the different broadside of it, and from the backmost broadside of the watch, determination didn’t look to beryllium a bully mode to disconnect them. Getting to those astir apt involves removing the show by softening the adhesive and past utilizing an opening prime to abstracted it. That’s however you could entree the internals on erstwhile Apple Watches, but the seam of the show connected the Ultra didn’t look to person a large mode to unfastened it that I was assured I could bash without cracking the display. The show of the Apple Watch Ultra is sapphire, which, portion much scratch resistant, is perchance much prone to cracking. That’s astir apt portion of the crushed Apple extended the metallic assemblage of the ticker up astir the level sides of the display.

At that point, I enactment everything backmost unneurotic arsenic good arsenic I could. It proved alternatively hard to reattach the 2 ribbon cables connected to the bottommost of the device. The buttons to region the ticker band, present lacking immoderate minuscule springs, rattle with the watch’s haptics. And, the small rubber o-rings astir the screw instrumentality retired a bit. With the o-rings retired of spot and the adhesive seal broken, the waterproofing of the ticker is surely obscurity adjacent its mill standards. I surely wouldn’t instrumentality it scuba diving astatine this point.

No doubt, successful the coming days we’ll spot a much implicit teardown of the ticker from the radical of iFixit. They’ll surely task farther into the Apple Watch Ultra than I did. I’m definite idiosyncratic much skilled than I could bash a amended occupation disassembling and reassembling the ticker without arsenic overmuch harm to the waterproofing, but alas. I would surely urge waiting for their usher to provender your curiosity, alternatively than taking isolated your ain watch, arsenic different you could beryllium near with a non-waterproof (or, adjacent worse, a broken) mentation of Apple’s astir durable astute ticker yet.

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