Roger Fingas
The latest lawsuit over alleged defects in Apple products contends that the company owes $5 million in damages, because all Apple Watches are defective by design.
Every model through the Series 3 contains "the same defect and/or flaw, which causes the screens on the Watches to crack, shatter, or detach from the body of the Watch, through no fault of the wearer, oftentimes only days or weeks after purchase," lawyers for plaintiff Kenneth Sciacca argue in a class action brought through the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
"Apple knew that the Watches were defective at or before the time it began selling them to the public," the complaint continues. "Furthermore, consumers complained to Apple about the Defect almost immediately after Apple released the Series 0, Series 1, Series 2, and Series 3 Watches."
The company is accused of "actively" concealing problems, and denying the existence of any defect, instead labeling incidents as "accidental damage" and refusing to honor warranties.
Apple has addressed some Watch issues, such as separated back covers and swollen batteries on Series 0 units, and stripes on some GPS-only versions of the Series 3. Detached screens have also been an occasional complaint on public forums, but without any official response so far.
One possibility is that screen issues are actually connected to battery problems, since components are so tightly packed in any given Watch that a swelling battery could put too much pressure on the display.
AppleInsider has service data collated on every model of Apple Watch from release, similar to the data we have collected on the iPhone and Mac lines. However, with absolutely zero data on sales figures, and what appears to be escalating volumes of sales over the years, it's nearly impossible to draw any conclusion from it at present.
$5 million is nevertheless a low amount to claim in damages, since it would be unlikely to cover repairs or replacements for more than a small percentage of current Watch owners.
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Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
Andrew Orr
62 Comments
I know a fair number of people with the Apple Watch, and none of us have had this problem. We know it happens, but there are tens of millions of these watches out there. If it was a really serious problem we would have heard more about it.
I've had an Apple Watch since the original one (Series 0) came out and I've never had this issue and never known anyone else to have this issue.
Once again...this is more like Apple has over $250 Billion in the bank and they think they deserve a piece of it.
I agree with Melgross...if this was a serious issue, we would have heard a lot more about this. People LOVE to complain about their Apple product(s) not working/being defective.
Of course, the "Me Too" crowd is very popular these days so I wouldn't be surprised if this results in a major issue all of a sudden.
I had this happen to my original series 0 Watch, not fun. They wouldn’t replace it. Glue failed on a $600 Watch a month after the warranty expires and they could care less.
I've had my watch for six months now and haven't had the issue. I guess that means that I have a defective watch because it hasn't suffered from the 'design defect' yet.
What? Never heard of this issue before and I’m sure we would have heard of something by now if there was an issue.
Its also likely that *if* there is an issue, that it’s related to battery health. You can’t have a tightly packed computer with a high-powered battery and not engineer a safety system to prevent a chain reaction in the event the battery vents. In that case the only way to go is up which means to push the screen out. That’s an engineering consideration that is VERY justified.