The Battery of Apple Watch can be replaced

“Well, when it comes to the battery at least, owners of Apple Watch will be able to extend its lifespan,” TechCrunch reports. “An Apple spokesman confirmed to TechCrunch the “battery is replaceable”.”

The question that remains is how you’ll get it replaced. We’re almost certain Apple won’t make it easy for users to do it themselves, so it will likely require a trip to the Genius Bar — and presumably you’ll need to pay for it if the device is more than a year old.

TechCrunch has asked Apple for clarification — and whether other components can be replaced or upgraded — but the company is yet to respond.

Nevertheless, it’s good to know that the Apple Watch’s battery can be replaced if necessary. While some may upgrade their wearable on a regular basis, many others won’t want to spend $349+ on a new Watch every year, in which case replacing an aging battery will be important.

A healthy Apple Watch battery should provide up to 18 hours of “mixed usage” in between charges. Apple says that’s roughly “90 time checks, 90 notifications, 45 minutes of app use, and a 30-minute workout with music playback from Apple Watch via Bluetooth.”

Even if you use the device heavily, then, it should at least get you through your work day and into the evening hours before it needs recharging, but you’ll need to be careful about how you use the heart rate monitor, which appears to be one of its biggest battery drains.

Keep the heart rate monitor on while you’re working out and usage will drop to around 7 hours. Constant music playback will get you just 6.5 hours of use, and taking phone calls on the Watch itself drops battery life to just 3 hours.

Apple Watch will also have a Power Reserve mode, which can provide up to 72 hours of use on a full charge, but this restricts the device’s features so that it’s really only good for telling the time.

[via TechCrunch]