You can protect an Apple Watch screen and encase it in plastic or silicone, but here’s why you might need an extended warranty.
Gadgets are expensive enough without needing up fork out for something useless or needlessly expensive, but that’s often where we send our thoughts for extra warranties.
The classic extra recommendation by stores, it’s often one that we disregard too quickly. Somewhere between the expectation of an overpriced con and an unnecessary extra, it’ll be the thing you most likely shake your head on when the store clerk asks if you’d like it added to the bill.
And we totally get why: warranties aren’t always worth the paper they’re printed on. While they can give you peace of mind, you may not get like-for-like replacement. In a perfect example of “read the terms before signing”, some extended warranties may leave you with a refurbished replacement some several years later when your original does eventually break.
These days, most warranties should offer something more useful than simply someone else’s used gear, but it can be a case of buyer beware if you don’t read the terms before signing.
For Apple Watch owners (as well as owners of other Apple devices), AppleCare gets you around some of this with a promise to repair for a less expensive price.
Whether you need AppleCare Plus is always a valid question, and even though there’s no guarantee of a free repair, it may end up resulting in a consistent repair price. Depending on what happens to your product, that can be quite worthwhile, especially if your Apple Watch has taken a bit of a fall.
The right angle (and the wrong result)
It doesn’t have to be a big fall. Small falls can do the right (or wrong) type of damage provided they fall at just the right (or wrong) angle, or onto the right (or wrong) type of surface.
All the stars have to line up in the worst possible way for a break to occur.
And yet that can happen.
Like an iPhone, an Apple Watch has glass on the front and back: the front is clearly the screen, while the back sees the sensors covered by glass. Drop one in just the worst way and either glass element is at risk.
We’ve seen broken Apple Watch front glass before, and recommended urgent repair jobs simply because running your fingers over broken glass is ill-advised.
The rear glass can be an equally difficult and problematic lesson.
With a broken glass-covered sensor section, your skin is more at risk from cuts from the glass, and you can’t wash your hands while wearing a broken Apple Watch. That sensor section is a direct path to the main hardware of the wearable, and any water that comes in is likely to render your Apple Watch broken well and truly.
After a severe fall and obvious break, your first point of contact should be a repairer, where they can survey the damage and deal with pricing.
A fix
You know it’s coming: a cost that may be big. The problem is you may not have realised just how big replacing glass elements on an Apple Watch can be. Almost to the tune of the entire device.
Replacing the screen is costly enough, but replacing the rear glass on an Apple Watch is tantamount to simply replacing the whole thing, and that can get expensive.
Take the Apple Watch Series 9 aluminium 4G model, which when we reviewed it in 2023 retailed at $699. With a broken glass element, Apple’s online quote system expects the replacement to cost $559, nearly the entirety of the asking price.
A potential solution comes in the form of the extended warranty, provided you have it before the break occurs.
Armed with a warranty, the replacement cost is closer to 14 percent of the price of a new model, compared to the nearly 80 percent of Apple’s out-of-warranty estimate. It’s not free, sure, but it’s also not like buying a brand new unit.
Like any other extended warranties, Apple Care warranties may not be immediately considered. However, in a watch where the risk of glass breakage is more severe because you’re waving your arm around, and the cost of replacing glass so high, an extended warranty could be a wallet and gadget-saving addition.
In Australia, AppleCare+ starts between $4.50 and $8.50 per month, and can cost as much as $169 for two years for Apple Watch coverage. However, it also includes unlimited incidents of accidental breakage repairs and an express replacement service, not to mention what is conceivably a lower price for repairs and replacements by comparison without.
Even if you’re bullish on phone warranties, or even laptop or tablet warranties, the risk of damage and subsequent repair costs could make AppleCare worth it for an Apple Watch over the long term cost of ownership. At least if you’re concerned if you’ll ever need to replace the glass on either side.
