Apple Watch Series 8 screen & battery teardown: interactive 3D teardown

All 8 steps

1. 1Power off and slide the bands off

   Take the watch off its charger and switch it off: hold the side button, tap the power button at the top of the screen and slide the power-off slider. Then, one end at a time, hold down the band release button on the back beside the slot and slide the band sideways out of its slot. Lay both bands aside and put the watch face up on the soft pad, its back in the pad’s pocket so that it lies flat.

2. 2Warm the screen

   Lay the warm heat pad on the screen for about three minutes, as iFixit does, until the glass feels slightly too hot to touch. The heat softens the thin ring of adhesive that holds the screen on the case’s rim. A hair dryer kept moving does the same; do not hold a heat gun on it, as the battery lies right under the screen.

3. 3Open the seam with a blade and cut round with a pick trap

   Slide the ultra-thin steel blade into the seam at the 12 o’clock edge, the short edge nearest the Digital Crown, at a slight downward angle and no more than 1.5 mm, and tip it down until the screen lifts a hair. Slip a plastic pick into the gap and take the blade out. Slide the pick along the 12 o’clock edge, round the corner and down the speaker edge, then along the 6 o’clock edge, no deeper than 3 mm. Round the corner onto the crown edge, keep it to 2 mm: the screen’s two cables fold over that edge just inside it, below the side button. Do not lift the screen yet. Avoid this trap: Along the crown edge the screen’s two cables fold up over the case wall and back under the screen only a couple of millimetres inside the edge, below the side button. Push the pick in as deep there as on the other edges, or deeper, and its tip runs into the fold and nicks a cable: the screen then shows lines, goes blank or stops taking touch, and the cables are soldered to the watch’s board, so they cannot simply be swapped. iFixit keeps the pick to 2 to 3 mm on this edge. Keep it to the 2 mm mark there.

4. 4Swing the screen open over the crown trap

   Slide the foam block up beside the crown edge. Lift the screen’s speaker edge, pull the screen gently towards the crown so that its crown edge clears the Digital Crown, and swing it over like a book’s cover, until it lies face down on the block. Its two cables stay plugged in and run over the crown edge: lift it no further from the case than they reach. Avoid this trap: The screen’s two cables are short and leave it at the crown edge, so that edge is its hinge. Lift the crown edge instead and swing the screen over the speaker edge, as if it opened the other way, and the cables are stretched right across the case: before it is half open they pull tight over the battery and tear where they fold. Lift the speaker edge, and swing the screen towards the crown.

5. 5Warm the battery and pry it up with a plastic pick trap

   Lay the heat pad over the open case for about two minutes, to soften the adhesive under the battery. Then slide a plastic pick in between the battery’s 6 o’clock edge and the case wall, and lever it up slowly with steady pressure, sliding the pick further under as the adhesive lets go. The battery is still plugged in here, because its connector is hidden under it: never use metal, and never bend or puncture it. Avoid this trap: On this watch the battery cannot be unplugged first: its connector is under it, so it is still live while it is pried up. A metal screwdriver or metal tweezers levered under its edge dents the soft pouch, and a dented or punctured lithium-ion cell can short inside, smoke and catch fire, and metal can also bridge the battery’s contacts. Use only a plastic pick, warm the adhesive first, and lever slowly. If the battery swells, hisses or smokes, stop and move the watch onto something that cannot burn.

6. 6Lift the battery out and unplug its hidden connector

   Lift the battery out of its recess and lay it face down beside the watch’s 6 o’clock edge: its cable is long enough, but do not stretch or crease it. That uncovers the battery connector, under a small steel bracket by the speaker wall, just below the Taptic Engine. Turn the bracket’s one Y000 tri-point screw out, 1.1 mm long, into well 1, lift the bracket off with tweezers into well 2, and pry the connector straight up off its socket with the point of the nylon spudger. Nothing in the watch is live now. Lay the old battery aside.

7. 7Free the screen’s two cables and lift it away

   On the back of the screen, now lying face down on the block, the two cables end in two ZIF connectors under black tape. Peel the tape off both with tweezers. Flip up each connector’s small hinged latch with the point of the spudger. Warm the screen’s back for about two minutes to soften the heat-dissipation tape the cables are stuck to, slide a pick under both cables to free them, then draw each cable straight out of its connector with tweezers, never pulling on the screen. Lift the screen away.

8. 8Peel the old adhesive off the rim

   Pick up a corner of the old adhesive with tweezers and peel the cut ring off the case’s rim, then wipe the rim with a swab dipped in a little 90% isopropyl alcohol and let it dry. The new screen goes on a new pre-cut display adhesive gasket, laid on this clean rim. The watch then goes back together in the reverse order: press Reassemble.

What you need

• Ultra-thin steel opening blade · 0.1 to 0.2 mm, for the first 1.5 mm
• Plastic opening picks · marked at 2 and 3 mm
• Heat pad or hair dryer · until the glass is slightly too hot to touch
• Y000 tri-point screwdriver and a magnetic tray · for the bracket’s one 1.1 mm screw
• Blunt ESD-safe tweezers and a nylon spudger · no metal near the battery
• A foam block · for the open screen to lie on
• New battery and display adhesive gasket · and a new screen if the glass is cracked

Questions

Safety

Run the battery below 25% and take the watch off its charger and switch it off before you start. On this watch the battery cannot be unplugged first: its connector is under it, so the battery is still live while it is pried up and lifted out. Keep every metal tool away from it until it is unplugged, never bend, press or puncture it, and if it swells, hisses, smokes or gets hot, stop and move the watch onto a non-flammable surface. Wear safety glasses: a cracked screen can splinter.

• Lithium-ion batteries: never bend, puncture or pry a battery with metal. A damaged cell can go into thermal runaway: it smokes, catches fire and can explode. Discharge it below 25% first; if it swells, hisses, smokes or gets hot, stop and move it somewhere safe.
• Static (ESD): work on an anti-static mat with a grounded wrist strap; a spark you cannot feel can kill a chip.

About this teardown

3D Spatial Reconstruction: Models are engineered from factual hardware measurements to visualize internal layouts, screw lengths, and hidden cable traps before you open your device. Always verify cable routing on your specific hardware revision.

The watch is Apple’s Apple Watch Series 8 in its 45 mm aluminium case (not the 41 mm, the stainless steel model or the Ultra), modelled at its published size of 45 × 38 × 10.7 mm, with the Digital Crown, the side button, the speaker’s slots and the band slots drawn plainly and no Apple logo, name or artwork anywhere. The order, the depths, the screw and the connectors follow iFixit’s Series 8 battery and screen guides for the 45 mm model: the blade in at the short edge nearest the crown, the pick 2 to 3 mm deep along the crown edge, the screen swung open towards the crown, the battery pried up by its edge and set beside the watch on its cable, one 1.1 mm Y000 screw on the battery connector’s bracket, a press-fit connector pried straight up, and two ZIF connectors on the screen’s back.

Where the brief for this teardown differed from the watch, the watch decided. It drew three display and digitizer cables folded along the bottom and left edges; the Series 8 has two, both to ZIF connectors on the screen’s back, and they fold over the crown edge, below the side button (iFixit’s Series 7 and 9 guides place them near that corner). It had the Taptic Engine lifted to reach a hidden tri-point battery bracket screw; on the Series 8 the Taptic Engine stays in, and what hides the bracket and its one Y000 screw is the battery itself, lifted out on its cable. Its 1.5 mm is kept as the limit for the blade, which iFixit says only not to push in far; the pick goes 3 mm under the other edges and 2 mm along the crown edge, the safe end of iFixit’s 2 to 3 mm. It named a 0.1 mm blade; iFixit’s own is 0.2 mm, so the kit says 0.1 to 0.2 mm. And it named two brands of frame glue; the page names the part instead, a pre-cut display adhesive gasket made for this model.

The other models open the same way with differences. iFixit’s Series 9 guide (41 mm) keeps the pick to 3 mm, stops it at the side button on the crown edge, and finds the battery on a ZIF connector with a hinged latch and no bracket screw; the 41 mm Series 8’s battery also differs, with a silver cover and its own connector. iFixit’s SE guide opens it from the same short edge with the pick kept to about 2 mm by the crown, and finds a Force Touch cable over one corner of the battery and a 1.1 mm Y000 screw on a plate over its connector.

Our estimates, not measured figures: where the parts sit inside and their sizes (read off iFixit’s photos), the corner radius, the cables’ fold, the time for both jobs together and the warm-up temperature. The 3D runs faster than real hands do. Water resistance after a repair depends on the new gasket alone: treat an opened watch as no longer water-resistant.

Sources: iFixit: Apple Watch Series 8 Battery Replacement (45 mm: the 1.1 mm Y000 bracket screw, 30 to 50 minutes), iFixit: Apple Watch Series 8 Screen Replacement (2 to 3 mm on the crown edge, two ZIF connectors, 40 minutes to 1 hour), iFixit: Apple Watch Series 7 Battery Replacement (the pick to 3 mm, the cables near the bottom right corner, 45 mm and 41 mm differ), iFixit: Apple Watch Series 9 (41 mm) Battery Replacement (stop at the side button, the battery on a ZIF connector), iFixit: Apple Watch SE Battery Replacement (about 2 mm by the crown, the Force Touch cable, the 1.1 mm Y000 screw), Apple: Apple Watch Series 8 technical specifications (45 × 38 × 10.7 mm, 38.8 g, 396 × 484 pixels), Apple: Apple Watch Series 9 technical specifications (45 × 38 × 10.7 mm), iFixit: Apple Watch (45 mm Series 8) Battery (listing: 3.86 V, 1.19 Wh, 308 mAh, adhesive included), iFixit: iFlex Opening Tool (a 0.2 mm steel blade), Price source: iFixit, Apple Watch (45 mm Series 8) battery $24.99, screen $189.99 (Ion-X glass) and screen adhesive $4.99 (27 October 2026), Price source: Apple, out-of-warranty estimates for the Apple Watch Series 8 (GPS, aluminium, 45 mm), battery service $99 and other damage $299 (27 October 2026).

The 3D models, drawings and text are our own. Apple, Apple Watch, Digital Crown, Taptic Engine and Force Touch are trademarks of their owners, named only to say which device this teardown is for; iTakeApart is not affiliated with them.