iFixit has taken apart the Apple Watch Series 12 and the Apple Watch Ultra 4, and the results are a split decision. One of Apple's newest watches finally got a little easier to open. The other did not move at all.
The teardown, published October 6, found a battery pull tab and a redesigned display connector inside the Series 12. Those changes lifted its repairability score for the first time. The Ultra 4 scored exactly the same as the last three generations of Ultra, which is iFixit's way of saying nothing changed.
Underneath the hardware verdict is a bigger argument. iFixit says the Apple Watch is now one of the least repairable products Apple sells, and that the company is out of compliance with electronics right-to-repair laws in ten states for the Watch specifically.
What Actually Changed Inside the Series 12
Two things.
First, the battery. iFixit found a stretch-release adhesive tab holding the battery in place. On previous models you had to lever the battery out with a spudger, which risks prying into the surrounding components. Now you pull the tab and the adhesive releases. It is the same trick Apple already uses in newer iPhones, and it is the single most-cited source of friction in a battery swap.
Second, the display connector. Apple dropped the fiddly ZIF connector and its tape in favor of a press connector under a bracket. That makes the display cable a little less likely to die during the procedure. There is a catch: replacing the display now also means removing and replacing the battery, so the wiring got simpler while the job got more interlinked.
The payoff on iFixit's scale is a 4 out of 10, up one point from last year. That is the first time the standard Apple Watch has scored above a 3.
The battery itself grew modestly. iFixit measured 1.461 Wh in the Series 12, up from 1.403 Wh in the 46 mm Series 11, a gain of roughly 4 percent. Real, if not headline-making.
The Ultra 4 Is a Four-Peat of the Same Score
The Ultra 4 gets none of that. It is also, in hardware terms, the smaller update of the two, something our pre-launch rumor roundup already hinted at.
Its display and back are glued in place, with the back also held by four screws. Those screws look inviting and are a trap: taking them out only gets you to the sensor assembly and compromises your waterproofing. To reach the battery, or anything else, you still go through the heated screen.
The one bright spot is capacity. The Ultra 4 packs a 2.444 Wh battery against the Ultra 3's 2.313 Wh, a 5.7 percent increase. iFixit also noted a new sensor layout on the back, with more LEDs covering a wider surface area, which lines up with the upgraded Health Sensing System Apple put in this generation.
The score: 4 out of 10, the same as the Ultra, Ultra 2 and Ultra 3. Four generations, no change to the repair experience.
The Specifics That Make a Battery Swap Risky
A few details from the teardown are worth knowing if you own one of these watches.
- The Ultra 4 takes about ten minutes of heating before you can lift one edge of the display and cut the perimeter adhesive
- The tolerances on the Series 12 are tighter than the Ultra's, and iFixit said the force required worried them about the display
- The fragile display cable runs right along the path you have to cut, so a slow, shallow opening tool matters more than force
- Getting in from the bottom of the Ultra is a dead end for repair purposes. It only reaches the sensors and breaks the seal
iFixit debuted a new tool for exactly this job: a thin metal opening pick with depth markings etched into it, so you can control how far the blade travels. Apple did not make the swap easy. iFixit made a tool that makes the mistake less likely.
Why iFixit Says Apple Is Out of Compliance in Ten States
This is the part iFixit led with, and it is about more than parts.
Ten states have passed electronics right-to-repair laws covering more than a third of Americans: Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota, Texas, New York, Maryland and Connecticut. Oregon's law, as iFixit describes it, requires that once a manufacturer offers repair services for a product, it must make the same parts, tools and documentation available to independent shops and DIY repairers.
Apple does offer its own Watch repair and battery service. That means, by iFixit's reading, the parts, tools and manuals exist inside Apple. What does not exist is any route to them from outside. Apple sells no Watch repair parts or dedicated service tools to independent fixers, and there are no Watch repair manuals in the Self-Service Repair program, which already covers iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, displays and some audio products.
A repair option that starts and ends at Apple is the exact thing these laws were written to open up.
Apple's position, per iFixit, is that Self-Service Repair already meets the requirement. In Minnesota, Apple told the Attorney General it is in full compliance. In the same thread, someone identifying as an Apple-Authorized Service Provider argued the Watch should be exempt because it counts as a medical device, since it runs FDA-cleared features.
Apple's own safety documentation says the opposite. It states plainly that the Watch is not a medical device. The FDA calls it a general purpose computing platform that happens to run the cleared hypertension notifications. Those two positions cannot both be true.
What an Apple Watch Repair Costs
The pricing makes the access question concrete.
Apple estimates $99 for a battery repair on an Apple Watch Series 12 with GPS and Cellular. For any other service, Apple quotes $599. That second number is higher than the cost of a brand new aluminum Series 12 at $399, and close to the $699 titanium model. The Ultra 4 starts at $799 and carries the same fourth-generation repair score, so the calculus is the same on the high end.
So a cracked screen on a $399 watch can carry a repair quote worth more than a replacement. That is where an independent shop would normally step in. Right now, for the Watch, there is not one.
Why This Matters More Than It Used To
The Apple Watch is increasingly a health device, and health devices are the ones you least want to lose for a week.
iFixit's teardown lead, Shahram Mokhtari, wears an Ultra 2 to track his arrhythmia. He likes it. He also has the common problem that its battery no longer holds a charge the way it did, and he is not eager to pry up an expensive screen to fix it. The more someone depends on a watch's health features, the worse an ordinary battery failure becomes.
The sensor upgrades in the Series 12 and Ultra 4 are the reason for another wrinkle we have covered before: the new sensing hardware reset the regulatory clock on hypertension notifications for both models outside the United States, the UK and the EU. The hardware got better and the paper trail got longer.
None of that is an argument for closed repair. If anything it is the opposite. A watch people wear to monitor a heart condition should be the one with the easiest path to a fresh battery, not the hardest.
Bottom Line
iFixit's teardown splits the two new Apple Watches. The Series 12 earned its first repairability improvement in years: a battery pull tab, a simpler display connector and a 4 out of 10, with a battery that grew from 1.403 Wh to 1.461 Wh. The Ultra 4 matched its predecessor on every repairability measure, gained 5.7 percent battery capacity, and stayed at the same 4 out of 10 it has held for four generations.
The bigger story is the one iFixit is pressing hardest. Ten states have laws that, in its reading, obligate Apple to hand over Watch parts, tools and manuals. Apple says it already complies through Self-Service Repair. Apple's own documentation says the Watch is not a medical device, while its compliance argument leans on treating it like one. Until that gets settled, the Series 12's pull tab is a welcome small step, and the Watch remains the hardest Apple product in the lineup to keep alive.
Sources: iFixit's published teardown of the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 (October 6, 2026), including its repairability scores, battery capacities and the ten-state right-to-repair analysis; Apple's own safety guidance stating the Watch is not a medical device and the FDA's description of it as a general purpose computing platform; Apple's published Self-Service Repair coverage and its out-of-warranty service pricing for the Apple Watch Series 12; teardown reporting from 9to5Mac, AppleInsider and Notebookcheck, which corroborate the battery capacities, the pull tab and the unchanged Ultra score.
