Pebble smartwatch teardown reveals minimal innards that are nearly impossible to fix

Perhaps lost in the speculation regarding an Apple smartwatch, the smartwatch that first lit the internet on fire, the Pebble, has shipped to eager customers. The maniacal folks over at iFixit sought to satiate their tech bloodlust, and ripped the Pebble to shreds, exposing its insides for all the world to see. However, it turns out that there isn’t much going on under the hood.

For those of you that somehow missed the Pebble as it took over the tech news cycle, it’s a watch, funded through Kickstarter, that interacts with your smartphone and displays your phone’s information on the watch. Considering you can just look at your smartphone to see what’s happening on there, the Pebble’s true goal is to use it when it would be inconvenient to pull your phone from your pocket or bag. When at the gym, for example, it’s annoying to have to reach for your phone when you want to change tracks on a song, or check Twitter in between sets. With the Pebble, you could leave your phone in your pocket, but still have access to core features. You’d think that would make the watch a complicated device, but when iFixit busted it open, they didn’t find much going on.

The Pebble doesn’t have any visible outer screws, so they had to use the iOpener kit, which was originally used to pry open the iPad. Due to a significant amount of adhesive, the watch’s casing was difficult to open, and iFixit reports that it’s impossible to open the casing without breaking the screen.

Once the watch was opened, the team found that three backlight LEDs is all that is needed to light the Pebble’s display. Rather than making a mess though and having to dive hands-deep into the watch’s guttyworks, the team found a simple assembly kept all neat and tidy inside a small plastic frame.

A cable is home to the Pebble’s three LEDs, Bluetooth antenna, and the unit’s four buttons, so if one of those should malfunction, you can’t really get in there and replace the component without replacing the cable. However, as we saw above, you can’t really get into the Pebble without busting the screen anyway. This also means you can’t replace the battery without breaking the unit.

That’s about all there is to the Pebble’s innards. It’s a tidy, compact design, and you can’t really open it unless you’re comfortable with a broken screen. To the average consumer, this wouldn’t be a problem until — most likely — the battery goes on the fritz. So, if you have or are planning on getting a Pebble, and are also fond of fixing your devices yourself, you should probably just keep good care of your watch instead.