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  • So the Series 4 Apple Watch with its rectangular design and curved glass edges, looks pretty

  • sleep and pristine unless, of course, it's shattered.

  • Replacement screens can cost almost as much as the watch itself unfortunately.

  • But what if replacing just the top glass were an option?

  • Today I'll show you that replacing just the glass is indeed an option...while at the same

  • time showing you why this repair should never be attempted by mere mortals.

  • Personally, I've tried multiple glass-only Apple watch repairs before this one, each

  • time failing catastrophically.

  • This time around I'll have some extra help from a guy who does this on a regular basis.

  • He's found a way to make these impossible repairs possible.

  • But still, without experience, I'd say about 99% of people who attempt this project will

  • fail.

  • Now that the pep talk is over, let's get started.

  • [Intro]

  • Removing just the glass on a smart watch or cell phone is like trying to separate two

  • potato chips that are glued together without cracking either one of them.

  • The concept of course is simple, but the execution is near impossible.

  • It's the brain surgery equivalent of smart phone repairs.

  • The initial trick is that the glass curved edge of the Apple Watch Series 4 does not

  • have any part of the display panel underneath it, nor does it have the finger sensing digitizer

  • under the curve.

  • It does however have a super fragile square ring around the bottom edge of the glass that

  • rests up against the metal for the Force Touch feature which is kind of essential to the

  • functionality of the watch.

  • I'll show you what that looks like in just a second.

  • This is going to be one of those videos you got to watch all the way through till the

  • end.

  • I'm not going to use any heat yet because heat can damage the Force Touch ring by causing

  • it to delaminate.

  • So I'm gently pulling away the tiny cold glass shards with my fine tip tweezers.

  • Is this tedious?

  • Yes.

  • But remember we are working around layers of technology that are more fragile than potato

  • chips, so slow and steady wins the race.

  • Once we have these smallest glass chips pulled away from the frame, we can slide a super

  • thin piece of stiff plastic between the glass screen and the Force Touch ring, taking special

  • care not to damage the fragile ring while sawing my plastic back and forth to help it

  • slip under the glass and slice through the adhesive that's holding it to the black Force

  • Touch sensor.

  • Pulling up a sliver of glass at the wrong angle can put pressure on the display that's

  • under the glass and destroy it.

  • It's like trying to diffuse a bomb that could obliterate the watch at any second.

  • Also keep in mind that holding down the side button for too long literally calls the police.

  • Ask me how I know.

  • Obviously, the more cracked the glass is, the easier it is to work on because tiny slivers

  • of glass can pull away easier.

  • If the display ends up breaking with black splotches or the touch sensitivity stops working,

  • the only option at that point is to replace the whole screen instead of just the glass,

  • which is what we're trying to do here today.

  • Remember, we still can't use heat yet because of that Force Touch ringit's still adhered

  • to the metal frame.

  • Every now and then I would run into a snag along the glass edge requiring me to swap

  • out my piece of plastic or grab my tweezers to shimmy out another piece of glass.

  • I've been at it for about 45 minutes now, going slow and removing each bit of glass

  • individually.

  • These watches are expensive, but if I can salvage this screen by replacing just the

  • glass, I can save quite a bit of money.

  • I'll add each sliver of glass to my glass collection off to the side until I have another

  • opening big enough for the thin piece of plastic.

  • I'll pop it in and start slicing between the glass and the Force Touch ring.

  • This is a terribly tedious repair that I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy.

  • It might be stressing you out a little bit that the watch is still turned on at this

  • point, but as long as I don't slice my plastic too deep into the watch, the inner cables

  • should be just fine...nothing's around the edge.

  • I'm leaving the watch turned on so I can easily test and see if I've broken the internal potato

  • chips or not.

  • Once that screen is broken, there's no point in continuing and I'm better off just buying

  • the whole screen replacement instead of just the glass.

  • Finally, after removing all the little slivers of glass and slicing my plastic under the

  • larger chunks of glass, the whole screen is loose from the Apple Watch body.

  • Everything is indeed still working at this point, which means we haven't messed up yet.

  • Cross your fingers it stays that way.

  • In order to proceed I need something called a vacuum hot plate.

  • This beauty can suction down objects while heating them up to soften the adhesive.

  • It's a much more controlled environment than using my standard heat gun.

  • And since we're working with small and delicate things, it is a needed piece of equipment

  • for this project.

  • I have tapped over all the holes but nine so that we can have all the suction in one

  • location.

  • I'll add another piece of tape over the cracked Apple Watch screen so air won't slip through

  • the cracks and cause it to lose suction...science.

  • And I'll also turn off the watch.

  • Once the machine is turned on it will start warming up the adhesive that's holding the

  • ribbon cables to the back of the screen.

  • You can kind of see them pulling up right here.

  • There are 3 of them all lined up in a row and this gives us some wiggle room to reach

  • in and unplug the cables.

  • The adhesive holding down the black tape over top of these connectors is incredibly gooey

  • and sticky and near impossible to remove gently...Thanks Tim Apple.

  • Normally alcohol doesn't solve problems, but in this particular case, a drop of alcohol

  • right on top of each of the connectors dissolves the adhesive, allowing the tape to peel back

  • a bit easier.

  • It will become sticky again after the alcohol evaporates.

  • Once the tape is peeled back over all 3 connectors, I can pop the little black latch up at the

  • top, which unlocks the corresponding cable.

  • The latches themselves are extremely fragile, just like everything else we've been dealing

  • with today.

  • Finally I'll grab ahold of the ribbons themselves and the top of the screen, and gently but

  • firmly pull the ribbons off of the screen.

  • It's taken me about an hour to get to this point in the process and we haven't even started

  • the complex part yet.

  • Going back to our vacuum hot plate screen separator machine.

  • This time around I'm going to use some high tensile strength, super thin gold colored

  • wire that I'll wrap around my finger to keep secure.

  • This wire is going to be placed directly under the glass layer of the Apple Watch screen,

  • but above the digitizer and screen layers.

  • It's a small fragile sandwich of high tech components, and if you pick the wrong layer

  • to slide through, the whole thing is destroyed.

  • I'm not being dramatic, I'm just being realistic.

  • You can see the wire sliding and slicing into one of the gooey layers inside the sandwich

  • that's the adhesive between the glass and the digitizer, and exactly where we want

  • the wire to stay.

  • It's like trying to separate the two halves of a very expensive Oreo, but if you break

  • the cookie part, you lose a couple hundred bucks.

  • I'll lift the wire over the remaining curved glass chunks so it won't get caught on the

  • edge or start cutting into the sensitive bits, and then gently keep sliding the wire through

  • the gooey warmed up adhesive layer.

  • The whole thing is heated to about 80 degrees Celsius right now and that's keeping the Oreo

  • nice and soft for the wire to slide through.

  • The suction of the machine is keeping the watch screen from moving around too much while

  • the wire is sliding through the adhesive.

  • Once the wire finishes the cut and pops out the other side, the screen is loose and fully

  • free to pull away from that top glass layer.

  • The cracked glass is now removed from the display.

  • You can see some of the adhesive residue on the digitizer layer which is sitting on top

  • of the display layer, but that's pretty easy to clean off.

  • Nothing looks physically damaged yet so I think we're still good to continue.

  • The hardest part of the repair is now done...kind of.

  • The little bit of rubbery adhesive that is left on the screen can be gently rubbed off,

  • keeping in mind that this is like trying to rub flavor dust off of a Dorito, and one wrong

  • move can crack the whole thing.

  • A little bit of acetone can dissolve the rest of those lines and residue on top of the display.

  • But before I go any farther, I want to test and make sure my little Dorito is still in

  • one piece, so I'll peel back the tape over those connectors and pop each of the three

  • ribbons into their latches on the back of the screen.

  • Nudging them into place with the t-shaped bracket on the back of the ribbon.

  • I'll turn everything on.

  • The Apple Watch should still function at this point even without the glass in place.

  • The touch sensitive digitizer is still layered on top of the screen portion.

  • Yeah, it will be a tiny bit finicky because it's designed to have a glass layer on top,

  • but the watch should still function in general at this point.

  • So far, so good.

  • I'll turn the watch off again and remove the cables from the back of the screen.

  • Now it's time to add a new layer of glass to the top.

  • This part is pretty easy actually.

  • Adding the glass requires a special kind of glue.

  • Once the screen is totally clean from dust or fingerprints, I'll grab a little Lego to

  • prop the screen up.

  • I'll explain why in just a second.

  • I mostly just wanted to say 'little Lego' though.

  • I'll clean both sides of the replacement glass and add a dollop of Loca: Liquid Optical Clear

  • Adhesive.

  • This stuff is pretty cool actually.

  • It's what's going to hold the glass layer securely to the display.

  • The important thing when setting the glass down is that there are no air bubbles caught

  • under the glass.

  • I did catch one air bubble during my first placement, so I pulled that off and popped

  • it with a pair of fine tipped tweezers and then tried setting the glass down again for

  • the second time.

  • Resting the display on top of the Lego allows the display to sit up inside the curve of

  • the glass as it rests down into place.

  • But once again, I caught a little bubble under the glass as the adhesive flattened out towards

  • the edges.

  • It's not a huge deal, it just means that I have to gently persuade that little bubble

  • to migrate towards the edge of the glass with a tiny bit of pressure.

  • This little bit of pressure is also pushing out glue on the under side of the glass that

  • I'll have to clean up later, but as long as the Loca isn't getting on the electronics,

  • I'll be okay.

  • The cool part about this glue is that it's not going to dry on it's own, it stays liquid

  • and gives me plenty of time to clear the bubble and make sure the display underneath is totally

  • lined up underneath that glass.

  • The display needs to be centered evenly on every side, without any of the copper edges

  • showing.

  • I can shine a light through the underside of the display to make sure everything is

  • proportional, and then I can hit the whole thing with a UV or ultraviolet light.

  • These magical rays of artificial sunbeams are what dries or cures the liquid optical

  • adhesive that's holding the glass to the display.

  • It only takes a few seconds for the glue to start hardening and then a few more minutes

  • for the glass to become permanently attached to the display again.

  • It's pretty crazy stuff.

  • Thumbs up for that.

  • I do have to clean out the seepage from under the display from when I pressed out that little

  • bubble, but once that's cleaned up I can cure the underside of the glass to keep the edges

  • from running, and then we're pretty much done.

  • I'll grab the screen and pop all three of those ribbons back into their corresponding

  • latches and lock the fragile flaps gently down into place.

  • Then after making sure there's no glass slivers or old adhesive or dust resting on that Force

  • Touch ring, I can make sure everything still turns on.

  • I'm just as surprised as you are.

  • How's them apples.

  • The touch sensitivity still seems to be intact.

  • I'll make sure to line the antenna tab on the back of the screen up with the slot on

  • the motherboard and set the screen down into place to test the Force Touch.

  • And it looks like the Force Touch works.

  • For such a fragile intricate project, we definitely got lucky.

  • I can add some water resistant flexible adhesive to the edge of the display.

  • I won't trust the thing to be water resistant anymore of course, but the adhesive is going

  • to hold the glass in place, and it's still flexible enough to allow the Force Touch to

  • work.

  • This is an absolutely brutal repair.

  • I've done this exact same procedure on a few smart phones in the past so I'm familiar with

  • the process.

  • And even with my previous experience, it took me close to three hours to finish this watch.

  • This is definitely my first and last successful glass only Apple watch repair.

  • If you're wondering to yourself, 'Who in their right mind would want to do this?'

  • I'll leave a link in the description to my buddy who helped me with this repair.

  • He actually does this repair for other people on a regular basis.

  • It's kind of nice to save a few hundred bucks by fixing a cracked watch instead of buying

  • a new one.

  • Every version of the Apple Watch is going to be slightly different.

  • I'm pretty impressed with how good this turned out though.

  • Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go find some Doritos and Oreo's that I can go crunch

  • the crap out of.

  • Come hang out with me on Instagram and Twitter.

  • Hit that subscribe button.

  • And thanks a ton for watching.

  • I'll see you around.

So the Series 4 Apple Watch with its rectangular design and curved glass edges, looks pretty

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