Pebble watch gets teardown treatment, should last you six years

Pebble watch gets teardown treatment, should last you six years
Pebble - making a splash

Nary a gadget launch goes by without iFixit taking the whole thing to pieces to see what's what, and Kickstarter-darling Pebble Watch is no exception.

Having taken the whole thing to pieces, iFixit reckons that the biggest worry is the battery - it's almost impossible to replace so you're relying on the existing power component to keep the watch going forever.

That's a maximum of 10 years (but more likely six) based on a weekly charging cycle, the iFixit folk reckon.

Basically, this means your Pebble watch will be unrepairable - iFixit couldn't even get into the body of the watch without destroying the screen.

Clocking off

The reason it's so tricky to get in and swap the battery or other innards around is because the Pebble has been waterproofed to high heaven - or to 5 ATM (50 metres) to be more precise.

That means you should be okay to wear it while washing up or even swimming, if you want to play fast and loose with the $150 (£100 / AU$145) gadget.

Pebble has spoken before about the problems it faced with battery life, saying it would be interested to see what Apple comes up with in its much-anticipated iWatch.

CEO Eric Migicovsky said, "I think there's a lot of technological limitations right now on putting the computational power and battery life specifically in a watch form factor.

"I would be very interested to see if anyone's been able to crack that code."

Sounds as though Pebble isn't convinced that it has this time around. If you were one of the first wave to receive a Pebble watch, let us know how you're getting on in the comments below.

News Editor (UK)

Former UK News Editor for TechRadar, it was a perpetual challenge among the TechRadar staff to send Kate (Twitter, Google+) a link to something interesting on the internet that she hasn't already seen. As TechRadar's News Editor (UK), she was constantly on the hunt for top news and intriguing stories to feed your gadget lust. Kate now enjoys life as a renowned music critic – her words can be found in the i Paper, Guardian, GQ, Metro, Evening Standard and Time Out, and she's also the author of 'Amy Winehouse', a biography of the soul star.