iFixit has torn down the Pixel Watch 5 and given it a provisional repairability score of 9 out of 10, the same figure its predecessor received. That is an unusually high number for a smartwatch, a category where most devices are glued shut and effectively disposable. The word doing the most work in that sentence is “provisional”, and it is worth understanding why before treating 9/10 as settled.
What makes the Pixel Watch 5 repairable
Google has stuck with the construction it introduced last year. Instead of sealing the case with adhesive, the watch uses a latch-and-O-ring arrangement closer to how a dive watch is put together. The sensor glass comes off with two screws. That single detail is what separates this design from almost everything else on the market, because it puts the battery, the vibration motor and the mainboard within reach without a full disassembly.
The Pixel Watch 5 adds one small refinement over the Pixel Watch 4. Internal screws are now colour-coded to indicate the order in which they should come out. It is a minor thing, but it is the kind of minor thing that keeps a first-time repair from going wrong.
The display is still the hard part. Removing it means several screws, a bracket and a press-fit connector, and iFixit says that step could be simplified. Its published scorecard for last year’s model flagged the same area, noting that display replacements look expensive and that the required driver is not a common one. Nothing in this teardown suggests that has changed.
Why the score is provisional
iFixit’s published smartwatch repairability index currently tops out at the Pixel Watch 4, which holds a finalised 9/10 on scorecard v2.2. The Pixel Watch 5 figure comes from the teardown video rather than a completed scorecard entry, so it can still move before it lands on that list. Treat it as a strong early read, not a final grade.
For context on what the finalised score looks like, iFixit’s own summary of the Pixel Watch 4 reads: “Screen, battery, and band replacements collectively are the easiest of any smartwatch on the market.”
The disclosure worth reading
One detail belongs alongside the score. iFixit has a business relationship with Google, which it discloses at the end of the teardown video while describing itself as biased in favour of repairable products. That does not make the findings wrong, and the physical evidence here is checkable by anyone who opens the watch. But a 9/10 handed to a commercial partner is a number readers should know the provenance of.
The more practical caveat is that a repairability score measures how easy a device is to open, not how affordable it is to fix. Google does supply repair manuals and spare parts for the Pixel Watch line, which is genuinely more than most of its competitors offer. What the score cannot tell you is whether those parts will still be stocked and sensibly priced in four years, which is the point at which most people actually need them. On that, the only useful evidence is Google’s track record with older Pixel Watch models, and it is thin.
Google’s phones have been getting the same treatment. Our Pixel 11 Pro XL teardown coverage puts Google’s own service prices against the design, which is the comparison the watch still lacks.
Sources: Notebookcheck, IT之家
